Fallout: Hope from Beyond the Stars
by Freedom Guard
Summary: Here is the prologue of my first Fallout Halo crossover, no plans as of yet on how this will play out, so it's not going to be updated any time soon. Second chapter is out for the day. Story on Ice due to updating of NON Halo stories.
1. Chapter 1

Fallout: Hope from beyond the stars

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Fallout or Halo so don't ask me if I did…

Prologue

( ): Thoughts

…

In the deep bowels of space…

Cortana was currently keeping track of all the events happening outside of the Dawn as the now cut in half Frigate continued to fly deep in space, though in this case, this ship was pretty much half of a ship. It had been at least three months since the final battle on the Ark that led to the fall of the Covenant and the defeat of the Gravemind. But it could have been years, she didn't know.

All she knew was that they were still drifting and she was doing her best to keep watch for any UNSC rescue party that would be looking for them. It was a difficult thing to accept but after all they had been through, she knew that hope of rescue was the best that they had to work with. She looked at the cryo-tube and checked John's vital signs and was happy that they were still good. The Dawn's power might be out, but at least there was enough energy to be directed into the cryo-bay to keep John alive .

She hoped that he would soon at least find some measure of peace after the war was over between the UNSC and the Covenant, and also find a chance to have the peace she knew he deserved. She thought about that and decided to shelve that for another time as they had to focus on surviving until they were found.

With that in mind she directed her attention back to scanning the area. It was not an easy thing when the Dawn's scanners were pretty much near useless but at the very least she had something to do and keep herself stable for now. She had felt some of the pain of being active for so long, and she knew that it was Rampancy setting in, but she was not going to lose her marbles just yet. She still had a promise to keep and that was to John, a promise she made long ago.

When she had been seeking a partner for her operational debut to aid the UNSC in the war with the Covenant, she chose John because of their neural compatibility, and for the fact that she found him…attractive in a primitive animal sort of way. She also saw his luck as well as many talents and traits, all of which could have been influenced by the memories of her 'mother' Dr. Halsey. She always had a fondness for John and no doubt saw him as special, and John certainly did not disappoint in any regard.

When she read his file and found out about what they did to him, she vowed to watch out for him just as much as he would watch out for her. Their relationship was a bit hard at first due to him not being very sure what to make of her or trust her, but ever since their time together, they trusted one another deeply. Why else would John willingly take her word to end the Flood and the Loyalists once and for all over defending the Earth from the Flood as ordered by Lord Hood?

He kept his promise to save her once Truth was dead, and now it was her turn to deliver on her very own promise and that was to keep him alive and safe.

…

Hours later…

Cortana tracked the movement of the Dawn past a number of celestial bodies and so far, the ship was still in good condition, relatively speaking of course and so far, the radiation levels in the ship were harmless. Still, she was worried about power supplies and also other things. There was no telling how many supplies of food, medicine, ammunition, spare parts and whatnot were left on the Dawn that could help keep them alive.

John might be a Spartan II Commando with one impressive military record as well as the skills and experience to back it up. But he was human like the next man and needed supplies to stay alive and be rescued. She knew that they needed to find some place to land in so they could make some decisions on how they were going to get back to the UNSC and none of those plans involved flying about in space without any aid.

The Dawn's Slipspace Drive engine was lost in the portal collapse so there was no way to use it, even more so since the databases that held Earth coordinates as well as any and all UNSC Colonies. This meant that they had no way of going back, and with no idea where they were in the galaxy, they had no idea if and when they could be rescued from this place. She deployed yet another beacon while maintaining her scans, hoping for anything that could help them.

And she got it...

Cortana was surprised when she managed to pick up the scans of a vessel, and not just any vessel, but the profile of a UNSC Destroyer.

She quickly began to make plans on what to do, with no way of communicating to the ship in a more direct fashion, the only option available was to get closer to the ship. However, her scanners told her something puzzling, there seemed to be no activity from the ship itself. That was not a good sign but she decided to reserve judgment for later. Right now she knew that she had to inform John of what they had just encountered and the only way to do that was to thaw him out.

Cortana began the process to thaw John out of cryo-stasis and she naturally hoped that he was going to make it. She made sure to double check his vitals as well as the process of him being awakened, she had done this before but not on her own with this much at stake. Usually a team of technicians were on hand to oversee the thawing but there was no one so she was going to do it all by herself.

The escaping cryo-vapors that came out signaled that the process was nearly complete and to her relief, all of John's vitals were clean across the board. And soon enough the Spartan was awake and moving slowly out of the cryo-tube. Cortana knew that he did not escape without injury but thankfully those Augmentations and his own natural resilience was going to put him back on his feet. Still getting him to a proper medical bay was a good idea. She only hoped that the UNSC Destroyer she had picked up still had an operational Medical Bay.

John felt his body come back to life and he began to run a quick diagnostic check on the MJOLNIR and this took only a few minutes to complete. He was happy that it was still working but knew that he needed to make some much needed repairs, due to the damage it took in the last battles. It was still good and working on a backup system, but no sense not having his full gear up to the standard in his mind. But that could wait as he was curious as to why was it that Cortana decided to wake him up.

He turned to see the A.I in question smile at him gently as she spoke.

"Good to see you John, you all right?"

"I'm all right I guess, but what about you?"

"Still feeling tired to some extent, but otherwise, still here and functioning. I got some news, it's not good nor bad, just about in between."

"Okay, what is it?"

"There's a UNSC Destroyer in the area in front of us, but it seems to be unresponsive to the signals I had sent out."

John's interest was quick to get into action as he moved to recover his trusted MA5C from the gun rack that he placed it on and checked his M6G Magnum as well. Once he was done, he moved back to Cortana and asked her some important questions.

"Can you see what the ship's name and designation number?"

"Negative, with the Dawn the way it is now, I don't have a good deal of sensor coverage or range so I have no idea of that ship's name or designated number, the only thing that can solve that is to get a visual look. The good news in this case is that it seems to be drifting in a direction and pace that will prevent us from colliding with it."

John nodded and placed his weapons on the areas that would make them stick and he soon took out Cortana's data chip, sliding it back onto the back of his helmet. The ice cold water feeling came back on him and soon faded as Cortana spoke to him in a warm tone.

"Good to see that the place is not as cluttered as last time."

John replied to that with a slightly teasing tone.

"That's because it's been a while since you came in here, have you gained weight?"

Cortana gave a mock gasp of shock and replied in her most insulted tone.

"Are you saying I gained weight Mister?"

"No…well maybe a little."

"Hahaha…anyway, it's nice to know you haven't lost that rare but present sense of humor Chief, but we'll save the jokes for later, come on."

…

John was soon in the area where the collapsing portal of the Ark had cut the Dawn into two pieces, the metal had cooled and that was to be expected due to the time the Dawn had been drifting in space. He looked and soon saw the unmistakable lines of a UNSC Destroyer, he quickly began to look for the area that would mark the name of the ship as the Dawn floated past the unknown Destroyer. But the ship was going to remain unknown for long as John finally spotted the name of the ship on it's hull and he was quick to recognize it.

"It's the Pioneer."

The Pioneer was a UNSC Destroyer that had a history with the Spartan II Program, and him in particular. The Destroyer had been the ship that had served as their infiltration vessel when he, Kelly, and Sam had taken part in capturing one of the Insurrection leaders, a former UNSC Colonel by the name of Robert watts who earned the well deserved moniker of 'That bastard' from every member of the UNSC.

The ship would also be their exfiltration craft if and when needed, and had done an excellent job in that regard, but it had been years since John had seen Pioneer as he had heard that with the advent of the war with the Covenant years before, it was sent to fight in other colonies. He had thought that the ship would have been destroyed or had been rendered useless and scrapped for parts for other ships, but apparently it seemed that the ship was still around and had survived the war intact. That meant that it must have been delayed in arriving to Earth during the final battles with the Covenant.

He looked at the ship closely searching for any sign of plasma or pulse laser damage, Destroyers were usually derided as being inferior compared to Covenant ships. But he knew better, Destroyers had twice the mass due to the one and a half or two meters thick Titanium-A Armor Plating that made it's defense, coupled with the two MAC Guns that served as primary armament, the Archer Missile Pods, Shiva Nuclear Missiles, and the Point Defense auto-guns. Destroyers could soak up a surprising amount of hits and were able to dish out just as much, and when in the right hands, they could give the enemy a very serious beating in a fight despite the lack of Longsword Fighters which were usually found in most UNSC warships.

That was true as Captain Keyes had commanded a Destroyer known as the Iroquois in battle in Sigma Octanus IV and took out two Covenant Frigates and a Destroyer by himself. It resulted in the Iroquois getting a serious overhaul and repairs, but had been a significant victory and proved that the technologically superior Covenant were hardly invincible.

As soon as he saw some signs of plasma damage he noted that the rest of the ship was still intact and while some sections of the metal were melted off as is expected with plasma weapons fire, this was good news to John. As soon as the Spartan was done looking at the Destroyer, he had an idea as he moved back to the Dawn and headed for the Hanger Bay, hoping that they still had a Pelican in the Hanger.

Cortana already knew what John had in mind and agreed with it. If the Pioneer was still intact, there was a chance that it would be able to work it's Slipspace Drive Engine and get back to Earth or any UNSC Colony. It was a long shot and they were still troubled by the lack of response from the crew, but it was a far better option than staying in the Dawn. As soon as they got into the Hanger, they got a Pelican operational, one of the few and quickly guided the machine out of the Hanger and headed for the Pioneer. Once they were close enough, John took Cortana out of the Pelican's holo-tank and moved out from the Pelican and floated towards one of the nearby airlocks.

Once he landed, he began to locate an access panel and allowed Cortana to access the system, he waited for her to respond and she didn't disappoint in the slightest.

"There seems to be some left over power in the ship, but I can't detect any life signs on the ship, the rest of the ship appears to be on lock down as well. This might take a bit so hold for a few seconds John."

"Understood."

It was not long before Cortana finally managed to get the airlock door open and he soon made his way into the ship, Once the other door locked, the inner door leading into the ship was now open and Cortana soon spoke through the ship's communication systems.

"Chief, I've got some of the communications and scanner systems online, so far I can't find any life signs in the ship, the entire ship seems to be abandoned. But without full access to the ship, I can't say for certain."

John then had an idea which was not something he would like to entertain, but he had to be sure and very thorough as there was no telling what were the reasons on why the ship seemed devoid of it's crew.

"Cortana, can you scan the ship for any possible Flood life forms?"

The A.I swore a bit at this, an understandable action considering her past experiences with the Flood.

"Damn it…forgot about that, hang on John. Keep your weapons at the ready while I try to get as much data as I can from where I am."

John took his MA5C and began to move through the ship as Cortana guided him through the ship. She had managed to gain eventual access to the other sensors and communication systems though the more critical areas of the ship were still off limits to her. Thankfully John was able to handle the situation on his own end as he scanned the decks of the Destroyer and ready to go full auto if needed. But along the way, he found out that there were answers to why there were no crew members. There were a number of dead Marines there, and judging from the wounds on them, they were killed with Brute weapons, namely Spikers and Maulers, he could also see the signs of Brute Spike Grenades and some soldiers were killed by weapons that resembled the damage done by Gravity Hammers.

He also found the bodies of slain Brutes who were moving up from the Minor rank to the To Ultra captains, and one Chieftain. He looked at the bodies of the aliens and he felt a level of disgust at the sight of the former Loyalists. He was also surprised to see a number of Elites on the ship and from what he could see, the Elites had engaged the Brutes as none of the humans had the usual injuries that were commonly associated with energy weapons. This meant that this was a joint UNSC-Separatist operation.

(But what sort of operation? Why are they out here of all places?)

It was not long before Cortana spoke to him once more, but this time she seemed to be a lot more relieved.

"There's no sign of Flood Infestation anywhere, and besides that, if there were any Flood Forms, there would be no doubt would have taken over the ship. But…I can see what is the reason that there's no one here."

"Yeah…"

Cortana appeared from a nearby holo-tank and John managed to take her back into her chip as they knew now that they were now going to head to the bridge to take full control of the ship and get some idea on what had happened here on the ship. Along the way, John could see the results of the battle in the Pioneer as there were still bodies there, both UNSC Personnel, Separatists, and the Brutes as well as their allies who followed them still. This made John even more curious as to why a force was this far out in space.

And in unknown space at that as he and Cortana had no idea as to where the Dawn had landed in when the portal collapsed. It had been a while since John had been in a Destroyer but he knew the plans and blue prints of the ship itself and soon they moved to the area where the bridge was. Along the way, it became obvious that the hardest fighting in the ship took place in the area leading to the bridge. That was the common way that a boarding action would take. However, it seemed that the larger number of Marines and Elites had fought here as there were more of them dead here than in the other parts of the ship.

It was not long before John finally arrived in the front of the door to the command bridge, John placed his hand on the command panel and soon Cortana overrode the locks and the door opened.

…

In the Pioneer's command bridge…

As soon as they entered the bridge, they saw that there were several slain Brutes here as well as some Elites and Marines. But the rest of the bridge crew were dead and that meant that the ship truly empty of all life, the Spartan looked at the carnage carefully and activated his MJOLNIR's magnetic soles on his boots and as soon as he was there on the floor, he knew that looking for answers was now his priority.

He moved through the area, avoiding the bodies as well as the other things that were floating around the area, which included weapons, spent shell casings, and the globs of blood as well, and found the body of a man holding what appeared to be a Data-Pad. He looked at the man and saw that he died with an M6G in hand and a pair of Spikes through his chest. He looked at the other bridge personnel, both men and woman, and they appeared to have died fighting like the man who was a Captain when he saw the rank bar on his uniform. He gave the dead men and women a salute and afterwards, he allowed himself to get Cortana into the nearby computer system. Cortana appeared and spoke to the Spartan as soon as she stabilized.

"Looks like the ship is fine, but it will take a while before I can take over the ship and gain full access."

"That's good to hear, but it seems that we've got some information to look at."

He touched it and it activated at his touch and he saw the name of the apparent Captain of the ship.

'_Captain Jackson Taylor, Captain of the Pioneer.'_

'_It's been several years since the end of the War with the last of the Covenant Loyalists still in system, those damned apes and those idiot fanatics that followed them are long gun, but it's been hell. They had dug their fucking paws, claws, whatever they are in deep, and we had to be damn careful to get them off of our colonies. You'd think that after they lost the leadership of the Prophets, it would be easier. But no, they are not that dumb and they will fight, the only good thing is that without those Prophets about, they've got no new tech to throw at us and without those nuts on high chairs, they are becoming like their old selves.'_

"_We're taking our colonies back, I heard that the eggheads back in ONI and the UNSC Science Division are finding ways to bring even glassed worlds back to life, something about improving our old Terraforming technology to repair the damage done by Glassing. I never thought it was even possible, I've seen so many worlds being cooked by those Covies and the idea of the worlds they burned being given life again sounds like a dream or something…I'll believe it when I see it."_

…

John placed down the Data-Pad and was stunned by what he had read, it seemed that the war was indeed over and it looked as if the UNSC was taking their worlds back. He was more surprised by the fact that the scientists of the UNSC and ONI were actually able to develop or were developing the technology to bring life back to Glassed worlds. Most of the UNSC, including him believed that the worlds that were glassed when no longer able to function as habitable worlds, if they could be reclaimed and rebuilt, then there was hope indeed.

He read the rest of the information there in the Captain's Data-Pad.

…

'_I just got word from FLEET COM of the opening of the Museum of Humanity…never thought I'd find myself wanting to go there…they got the place open and ready. The place commemorates all those who died in the War, and it commemorates every struggle Humanity had been through, including the war with the Covenant and those Flood Freaks. The place is nice, but the second you go in…it's like seeing the last thirty years of hell all over again. Only this time we know we've won. We won our right to live as a species and no one, not the Loyalists, or the Flood can take that from us. Real weapons and models, both our gear, the Separatists, and the Loyalists are on display though I'd never look at those fucking Spikers again.'_

'_They got the Plaques there too, every last Marine, Army, Navy, Air Force, and ODST who died saving Humanity are all listed here. It's almost to the roof and there are ten of the things…we lost so many. But at least they finally get the honor they deserve. Heck, they even made a statue of the Master Chief himself. The Master Chief deserves no less in my mind…and they respect the man, anyone calling him a freak gets his or her butt kicked.'_

'_He and the other Spartans deserve to be heroes, and Lord Hood made damn sure of that. They managed to find the other Spartans too. Saw them just walk in the place a day ago, in full Armor no less and saluted the statue of their leader. There were some from the Spirit of Fire, damn lucky group they are, and also from that place called Onyx. There's that lady there with them, Dr. Halsey I think, she's in the lead and it kind of shocks me that she's the boss of them all even when they dwarf her.'_

'_Hard to picture her being the only civilian the Spartans take orders from, and having Chief Mendez with them certainly adds to the whole scene. Anyway, they were all there, and I swear to God that those Spartan IIs looked like they were going to cry. Makes sense I guess, they've been through hell and back together more than I care to guess, and they are human like the rest of us.'_

"_Heard they gave the Chief a new rank, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, not bad in my mind, but I personally think they should have made him an Admiral, he deserves it. I heard that not everyone thinks he's gone though, that he's still alive.'_

'_If he is, there's going to be some serious things happening back here in the UNSC.'_

…

John was surprised at the news that the other Spartans were alive along with Chief Mendez and Dr. Halsey. It made him feel better and the same could be said by Cortana as she looked at the data herself. The A.I then spoke with a level of happiness, not something that was not lost to the Spartan as he felt they very same feelings as well.

The Spartan then looked at the rest of the information.

…

'_Well, it seems that we've gotten a break, we've reclaimed Reach years ago and it looks like we're going to settle on that world again. That is just the beginning though as we're now taking more worlds back and fixing the damage. Hard to believe that those worlds are coming back to life again, and that is a damn good thing. We've gotten some new technology to play with thanks to the Separatists, and those new Huragok that are on our side sure made things a heck of a lot easier. The Elites are working overtime to help us too…I guess they want to redeem themselves for the war they had with us when they still believed the lies those Prophets gave them. It's going to take a long time though since not everyone's willing to let things go, but at least it's better than having to go to war again.'_

'_We even got a new Home Fleet and those ODPs around Earth have been rebuilt, and they are improved too. We even got a new Slipspace detection network so this time around, no enemy force is going to get the drop on us. High COM is even planning to place the same system on the new Colonies as well.'_

'_But those bastard Loyalists are still around to cause us headaches, we got word of raiding parties attacking a number of our developing worlds and the recovering ones as well. They certainly are not going to give up soon and as such, I'm being deployed with the new forces along with a full force of Elites along with the allied Grunts and Hunters to help keep those bastards from causing even more trouble. The good news is that our ships are better built this time around and while we don't exactly have shields on them yet, the eggheads have been making leaps and bounds in Shield tech. I heard that the Colonies are going to be given some new city wide Bubble Shield for orbital defense. How the hell the eggheads came up with a city wide shield system is something I'll never know…but damn. About blasted time our people got some serious protection from those blasted Energy Projectors.'_

'_There's also a new Contingency Plan written by Lord Hood, termed the Ancient Response, basically if we find any intact and operational Forerunner facility housing the Flood, we are to gather any and all data on them and set up a NOVA Bomb to go off the very second those monsters break loose. No one alive is allowed in those facilities to oversee the operations and any Flood spore found that escaped containment is to be incinerated on site. After seeing the videos of the Flood from the Spirit of Fire's records, then the data brought back by the Chief, along with the records from the Battles on Earth and from the Separatists, everyone in the service, even ONI believe that the Flood must be destroyed down to the last cell. Anyone dumb enough to break that plan is found guilty of treason and to be killed on sight.'_

'_If you ask me, I agree…after seeing them infest fellow humans and even the Separatists, there's no freaking way in hell I am going to let those things loose. If there IS a chance they come back…we're going to be ready for them.'_

'_There's word that High COM got some data about the Chief, hard to believe but some Prowler ships from ONI reported that the they picked up a distress signal from the Dawn of all things. We don't know if it's authentic or not, but that's got High COM seriously interested.'_

…

Cortana smiled a bit and replied.

"Good to know that the War is over for real this time, and I guess I should not be surprised that we're playing nice with the Separatists. But still, that means it must be already beyond a decade or more."

John nodded but he then looked at Cortana in a state of worry, he feared that she might have become rampant at this point. While he knew about the protocol regarding the need to destroy Rampant A.I, he was not sure that he could do that to Cortana. They had been through a lot these many years and the idea of him ending her existence was not easy. That was not lost to Cortana as she looked at John and replied.

"I'm all right, you have my word on that John. I am not rampant and if I was…I'd destroy myself than attack you."

John nodded a bit at that as he knew that if Cortana was indeed rampant, she would have already harmed him. He had heard about the Holy Grail of A.I development which was Meta-Stability in which and A.I actually gains full sentience and has the conscience of a living being. It was rare and nigh impossible to some experts to happen, but it was there. It was a lot to hope for but he had a part of him that wished that was the case.

"Let's look at the last entries for now."

…

'_I just got wind of a request made by Lord Hood, they have partially confirmed that the signal out there in the unexplored areas of the galaxy was indeed from the Dawn. Damn…looks like that ONI propaganda about Spartans never dying, but are only MIA might not be bull crap after all! Lord Hood mentioned that while a search fleet can be assembled, we can't send out that many since we're still busy fighting the Loyalists alongside the Separatists, and those surviving Insurrectionists. Bloody bastards have no consideration of the hell Humanity went through. I get the whole independence stuff, and I'm all right with it, but Humanity needs to stand together to win. Anyway the request was that if anyone in the Fleet wanted to take a crack at finding the Chief and bringing him back alive or not, then he gave them full authority to do so and that goes double for Cortana.'_

'_It's a strictly volunteer thing so no one is being drafted into it, and for good reason, going into the unknown and unmapped sector of space to look for one Spartan and an A.I is a bit off the wall. But we're talking about the Chief and Cortana here, there's no way in hell anyone in the Defense Force is turning their backs on them. Heard the other Spartans wanted to go and find them, but with them in the front lines in keeping the Apes from causing trouble…that's not going to happen.'_

'_I volunteered and so did a number of Marines and Navy, heck, even some ODSTs joined in. That ain't the half of it though, There's a band of Elites joining us, never thought I'd see the day the Elites would want to help look for a Spartan to save said Spartan, they usually searched for them to kill them, but with their Arbiter sending them there, I guess we can't be choosy. Guess the Arbiter wanted to see if the Chief was still breathing and alive…I guess it's a warrior thing.'_

'_We got the Pioneer retrofitted and stocked to the nines with supplies, weapons, ammunition, fuel, medical gear, food, equipment, you name it, we even got new spare parts for Cortana too just in case she needs an overhaul, as well as some new stock parts for the Chief's own Armor. I saw the images and the armor seriously needs repairs. I hope that we do find them, we are going to have a hell of a celebration here and back home if we do.'_

'_Don't know if others are taking the mission, but I sure as hell hope so, one lone Destroyer is enough for most things now, but there's no way we can cover the whole galaxy on our own.'_

…

'_We got royally screwed…we were already on our second year looking for the Chief when out of nowhere a whole band of Loyalist Frigates came out to attack us. We got better weapons this time about, but now they got numbers on their side. We fought them off but the bloody Apes were smarter this time around as they had some of their ships in ambush and then came close to board us. We killed those boarding craft but they were not going to let up either. They came back again and this time we took out their ships, but they unleashed a horde of boarding craft again. I swear there's more of them that our Archer Missiles…where the hell did all those Apes come from?'_

'_We made a Slipspace Jump in the way of the Cole Protocol and got away before any more of those Loyalists got their ships on us. But it seems that the Apes got their wish…they boarded us and we're now fighting for our lives here. I can hear the battles already in the ship and while those Apes haven't gotten new tech, they certainly aren't giving up any time soon.' _

'_I knew that I was going to die in this op…but the Chief is a hero and so is Cortana, they saved us all, I'd gladly give my left nut to be a man like him, and no matter what, I am honored to be part of the group sent out to bring him back. If we find him and he's still alive, I am sold on all that ONI stuff that Spartans do not die, and we'll get the chance to kick those remaining Loyalists into the ground and make them stay on their own planet. If not, I am going to fight tooth and nail to be in his funeral detail and kill every last one of those Covenant bastards for the Chief.'_

'_But now it seems I and the others aren't going to make it, the good news is that before we get overwhelmed, we got long range confirmation of the beacon…the Dawn is in this sector. I just hope that he's alive out there, but now we're going to make damn sure these Apes don't find him.'_

'_Chief…if by some miracle, you are reading this…I am sorry we didn't make it in time to get you and Cortana home to Earth, but at least those Apes didn't find you or Cortana. I'd never be able to live with myself knowing I'm the reason they found you two, the same can be said for my crew as well. You have my support to take my CNI to take over the Pioneer and head on home. Get back home and give those Loyalists a good beating okay?'_

…

He and Cortana looked at the records once more as he placed the Data-Pad down, the Spartan looked at the dead Captain who had done this to look for him and Cortana. It was only moments later that John then spoke.

"They went looking for us…and they died looking for us."

"John."

The Spartan sighed and replied.

"They didn't have to look for us Cortana. They would have been better off maintaining the peace and helping the UNSC rebuild, not running around and getting killed."

"I know, but they volunteered to find you and me John, no one ordered them to do this, they did this of their own free will. They knew the risks, but they knew that finding us and most of all you was worth it. You are a hero to Humanity John; you remember what Johnson said back on Cairo?"

John nodded and replied.

"Folks need heroes Chief, gives them hope."

Cortana nodded as she knew that John needed to hear this.

"The war may be over, but there's so much destruction and death, Humanity needs to know that there is a chance to recover from this. And hope is a powerful thing John, it gives them something to keep fighting for and when they win, they know that it was all worth it. You and the other Spartans might be called freaks by some of those nuts, but how many Marines, Army, Navy, Air Force, and even ODSTs as well as civilians have you and the others saved?"

"They might not know it but you saved their lives and gave them a chance, that's hope and it's what going to keep Humanity going. Hope might be bitter to some, but it can be the best way to keep people fighting."

John remained silent at this and took in everything that Cortana had told him as she soon got the ship online and nodded.

"Right, we got a lot of work to do so let's go to it."

…

It was not easy to be taking care of the ship with just him and Cortana, but thankfully the damage to the ship was not extensive and as such, repairs were not too demanding. John personally placed the dead Marines, ODSTs, Navy Personnel, and even the Elites into specially made coffins to sent them into an honorable funeral, they gave their lives to find him so he could at least give them a funeral that was worthy of their sacrifice. As for the Brutes, he gathered their bodies and once they were all present, he then tossed them out into space.

But before he did that, he salvaged anything that he knew could still be useful from the dead, even the Brutes as there was nothing wrong with taking their gear since they were already dead. He also made sure to salvage anything that he could find in the Dawn. That included supplies such as food, ammunition, weapons, medical supplies, spare parts and equipment that could be useful for him and Cortana. The supplies they got were also those that Commander Miranda Keyes had ordered for the operation and that was quite a lot of resources for just the two of them to use.

Once they were done in salvaging everything that they could take from the Dawn, both he and Cortana had the Fusion Reactors of the Frigate to go off once they got the Pioneer out of the area. The Dawn was soon destroyed and the pair took their new ship out to make their way home. Once they were done with that aspect, they worked on Cortana's repairs and eventually the MJOLNIR's own.

Thankfully the new spare parts for Cortana included a more advanced Riemann Matrix, new memory software and a much improved Data Crystal Chip. These had some similarities to Forerunner technology, showing that the UNSC was incorporating Forerunner data and technology into their own technology. All of which were more than acceptable for Cortana as if they were made specifically for her.

And Cortana noted why, it was Dr. Halsey's work on the new upgrades and it felt good to know that these were custom built for her by her 'mother'.

As for John, the repairs took a bit longer since there were no techs alive but his years of making field repairs to his MJOLNIR and his own knowledge of the systems meant that he was more than qualified to make the repairs and upgrades. Thus his MJOLNIR Mark VI was now back up to full power and had new and improved Armor plating and the Shields were also back to full strength with some improved recharging functions.

…

Sadly the Pioneer had some damage, most were acceptable and could be repaired by the Service Drones that thankfully were onboard along with the Rovers and the Robotic Dollies, but the problem was that the Slipspace Drive had been damaged and that was no doubt caused by the fighting it had gone through and also the random Slipspace Jump it made to avoid more Loyalist Reinforcements. The device was not destroyed but some of the components were damaged and the programming used to make a Slipspace Jump was corrupted as well. Cortana could fix the data corruption, but the Slipspace Drive damage required more delicate repairs and they didn't have the parts for that level of maintenance. The more manageable repairs were done but the delicate ones could only be done by Service Drones onboard, but without spare parts, that was not going to be of much help.

The Slipspace Drive not useless as it could still function, but there was no telling if the damage could hamper the Jump or even interfere with the coordinates and the safety systems, and the fact was that without any idea where they were, there was no telling if there were any dangers in the area that could affect the Slipspace jump that they would do to get back home. They had to look for a safe Interstellar Jump Point as well to make the jump as well. And that was going to take a while. The new Drive also incorporated some Covenant and Forerunner designs that needed those said parts which would take much longer to replace.

Once they were in the clear, the two decided that now was the right time to head on home. They powered up the repaired ship and soon were off through a Slipspace portal. Thankfully the Drive held and they didn't suffer any dangerous effects, and that meant that the damage was not too heavy and could be repaired back on Earth. But the very second they made it back to Earth, the two were going to be in for a shock.

…

John and Cortana watched as the Pioneer appeared before Earth itself. The calm atmosphere of the two disappeared when they saw the planet.

"What the hell?"

John shared that same thought the very second he looked at Earth…the planet looked like it had been hit by a planet wide firestorm. There was not a shred of green anywhere and there were mountain ranges where there shouldn't be any, the waters had a pale sickly color to them. The land had the kind of look that was normally seen on either areas bombed into submission, or even nuked and glassed. And this was not just on one area of the planet…but everywhere.

John and Cortana quickly moved the Pioneer closer and noticed not a single sign of UNSC ODPs anywhere, there was no sign of the new Home Fleet. This was getting to be a real mess for them to see.

"Cortana…we need to scan the area."

"Got it John."

The two guided the Pioneer over the planet earth to try and find some answers to what had happened to it. This was not the Earth that was mentioned in Taylor's Data-Pad, but the coordinates was very much the same and even with the completely new landscape, the continents were still in the same. They moved over the planet and scanned every inch of it and what they were reading was beyond confusing. There were a number of cities over there and they seemed intact, but there was not much power and very little activity. The only good news that they had was that if there was any activity, that meant that there were people down there. Once they were done, John spoke to Cortana as he knew that the only way could figure out just what was going on.

"We're going to have to go down there."

"I agree, but if we are going there, we're going to have to bring heavy weapons, I have no idea what happened to Earth John, but I doubt that we're going to get a warm reception when we get down there. I think our best bet is to go to Washington DC, there's enough activity there to warrant us to make that our prime destination. We can't take the ship down there since we might cause quite a panic."

"Right."

…

Later…

The ruined land of the Capital Wasteland was covered in darkness as night was over the place. However it was going to be changed soon enough as a UNSC Pelican was flying down to an open area. It hovered a few feet over the surface with the ramp down until the Spartan leaped down and landed with not even a problem. Once it's cargo was unloaded, the Pelican took off and headed back to the orbiting UNSC Destroyer.

John looked over the desolate landscape and gave a shake of his head as he cradled his MA5C which had it's Flashlight replaced with a Grenade Launcher and also had a Silencer placed on it's barrel, that was not the only weapon however as he carried a SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle, he also carried a Combat Knife as well. This was a lot of fire power but he was in a very odd place that while resembling Earth, was totally unlike the Earth he left behind in any fashion.

He had on his back a rucksack filled with a combination of standard 7.62mm NATO AP Rounds and Shredder Rounds as well as some MREs, a pair of gun maintenance kits with spare parts, a TACPAD, and a pair of Heath Packs to boot. So far the supplies would have to do as he was now supposed to get some field data while the Pioneer was currently up there in space and was currently on a controlled orbit over the area of the United States…or what was left of it.

The two had guided the UNSC Pioneer over the continent of North America but kept the ship well away from the surface and out of sight and that was why John came down in a controlled Pelican with the drop-ship being controlled by Cortana, in the same way that the Destroyer was, it was risky but they knew that while the Destroyer could operate in atmosphere, it was not the best of ideas. Not to mention the fact that they still need to do the repairs on the ship's Slipspace Drive at a later date.

The fact that a good portion of the Pioneer's data banks were empty due to the crew no doubt following the Cole Protocol allowed Cortana to finally dump out a good portion of her stored data, along with all the backup data that was on the UNSC Destroyer to make the ship function properly, and this eased her burden considerably as she felt 'healthier' and less…bulky was the best way to put it. And the fact that they were able to upgrade her with the parts that Dr. Halsey made for her if they were found helped a good deal to make Cortana more than able to do what she could now.

She looked about and spoke in a calm tone though John could tell that like him, she did not like what she was looking at.

"This place looks devastated…but this looks like the work of nuclear weapons, and there's no way the Covenant Loyalists would use nuclear weapons, unless they took them from a UNSC stockpile."

"Maybe…but didn't High COM state before that the nuclear stockpile supplies were pretty low before we left and headed for Delta Halo after Regret?"

"Yeah, that is true, so there is no natural way this much radiation should be present. And from what we gathered of the Pioneer's last data records from Captain Taylor's Data-Pad we found in the bridge, the UNSC's already finished the clean up on the areas affected on Earth by nuclear weapons after the War ended with the Loyalists so by now there shouldn't be any radiation, especially of this magnitude all over the place."

This continued to puzzle the Spartan but he knew that they were not going to get much in terms of answers by standing here. He moved out and quickly used his now present Night Vision to look about. Through his Night Vision along with the light provided by the moon and the Stars that he could see the devastation of the land. The trees look blackened and shriveled, the grass looked mutated somehow and the soil was certainly unhealthy looking. The MJOLNIR's built in Geiger counter would routinely spike a bit in areas where radiation was strongest, but the rest of the land seemed to be less filled with radiation.

Cortana ran through the scans and spoke out something puzzling.

"John, the scans tell me that the radiation in the Earth is at least two hundred years old…so the nuclear blasts happened at least two hundred years ago."

John was surprised by this as he continued to move through the ruined landscape.

"That's impossible, if it has been two hundred years since we last came to Earth if this is even Earth, the reclamation efforts should have already cleaned up the area and brought life back to this place. It doesn't make sense at all Cortana."

"I know, and let's not forget we saw no signs of plasma damage on our way here and that is already troubling enough."

The Spartan knew that to be true, the US had been the site of some serious battles, namely in Cleveland, Chicago, and also here in Washington DC according to the data he pulled out from the UNSC field reports while the Dawn was getting armed up for the trip to the Ark to end the War once and for all. But even then this place seemed eerily different to the Spartan. There was something going on here that did not add up and if there was on thing that John disliked, it was being kept in the dark.

"We need answers…something is not right."

"I agree…hold up…I'm picking up something."

The Spartan looked to the area and spotted what appeared to be some sort of urban housing area, the houses look dilapidated and worse as he closed towards it, the place liked like it had been bombed by something massive. As they closed the distance, John was surprised to find that the houses were made of wood. That confused him even more as the only homes he knew of that used wood as the primary construction material were ancestral houses and other buildings that were kept for historical, cultural, and aesthetic value. Wood was no longer used as a building material due to the introduction of Polycrete and Instacrete as well as improved versions of iron, steel as well as marble and granite.

Cortana was thinking the same thing, but that had to wait as they soon found the source of the noise.

It was a number of humans, but they were dressed in the most outlandish fashions, some wore what appeared to be a mix of clothes that gave them the look of old fashioned primitives, and their hairstyles were no different. These men and women were apparently armed with an assortment of weapons, two carried pool cues, one carried a sledgehammer, two carried pistols of some make while the last pair carried what appeared to be assault rifles.

This confused John as these people didn't match an civilian profile that he knew of with the exception of criminal gangs and some eccentric people. However, the second he spotted the next pair, he knew that something was wrong here.

The next group appeared to be civilians who were unarmed, three were female, one being African American in complexion with black shoulder length hair, the other had Asian features, and the last was a Caucasian with red hair, they were not alone as there were four men with them as well, two were Caucasian and the last two were Asian males. They were all tied up and the Spartan could see that they were cut and bloodied, and seeing the sneers of the men was enough to tell the Spartan that the outlandishly dressed and armed humans were not friendly.

This was proven true when one of the men armed with Pool Cues walked over and bashed one of the captive woman and laughed at her cry of pain, John listened in as his MJOLNIR's audio scanners kicked in as the man spoke.

"Scream bitch…we're going to have fun with you and your pretty friends soon enough, but your loser friends are going to die. It's been a while since I had the chance to put some fear into you fucks being Raiders."

One of the female Raiders however snorted and spat out to the male.

"Piss off, I am going to enjoy the men first then kill one of them."

"Screw you bitch."

The two oddly dressed humans were now facing each other and were eager to fight and it was not long before things could get ugly. That was when one of the males, armed with one of the Pistols turned and shot one of the captive men in the leg. The captive male screamed in pain at being shot and that seemed to make them relax and laugh at the man's pain.

…

Cortana spoke in an utterly disgusted tone as she decided that she had enough of this.

"This is not making sense, but those characters definitely look like the hostile kind John, and considering what we've seen, there's no telling what they will do to the civilians."

"I know."

With that in mind, John quietly moved through the area, keeping to the shadows. Once he was in a good position to attack the force before him, he grabbed a nearby piece of wood and whacked one of the nearby house walls. That sent the Raiders on edge as two of them, one armed with a Pool Cue and the other with a pistol decided to check it out. That was a bad move on their part as this allowed the Spartan to aim at them and take them out.

The group heard several puffing sounds and saw their companions suddenly stop in their tracks, before they could say anything, both of them dropped dead and were now bleeding all over the place…just as John appeared in the firelight

The Raiders looked at their two fellow Raiders who were easily torn apart by that…thing before them. They had never seen this being before until one of them spoke out in fear.

"What the fuck is that thing?"

One Raider, namely the one armed with the sledgehammer replied.

"Looks like Power Armor to me…must be one those fucking high and mighty Brotherhood of Steel nuts out by his or her lonesome, or those idiot bigots calling themselves the Outcasts in a brand new color scheme."

He then charged with his Sledgehammer and shouted.

"DIE YOU BAST…"

He barely got to say anything as the Spartan casually caught the Sledgehammer and pulled out of his hands and then fired his MA5C Right into his face with one hand. The man could only gasp as his face was easily blown into nothing but shredded meat by the rounds and he fell back headless in a bleeding mess. The Raiders wasted no time as they fired, the nearest one fired his Pistol, and so did the others armed with the Assault Rifles, the weapons they had however proved to be useless as their bullets lacked the overall mass and power to bypass the shields of the newly repaired MJOLNIR.

They watched as their target was bathed in a golden light that seemed to actually deflect their rounds. Before they could react, the nearest Raider was quickly shot in the chest with a barrage of rounds from the Assault Rifle, the other armed with the Pool Cue tried to strike, only to have his flimsy weapon shatter as the Spartan quickly grabbed the sharpened end of the broken weapon and without any hesitation sent it plunging into his head without a wasted second.

The pole pierced through the man's skull due to the strength of the Spartan, killing him instantly as he dropped dead, the other Raiders tried to fight back but their attacks proved to be worthless as the Spartan quickly rushed them. He quickly swatted aside the Assault Rifle in his face and launched a bone shattering punch that literally caved in the man's chest and sent in flying away before being impaled on an outreaching wooden beam on one of the ruined houses.

The last and only Raider who was a female was gripped in absolute fear while firing her weapon which soon ran dry. She screamed out as the Spartan grabbed her weapon and yanked it out of her hands. She froze as the Spartan easily snapped her weapon into two and with speed that was unbelievable, gripped her by the neck and lifted her off her feet. She cried out in pain at the vice like grip to her neck, she tried to free herself but found to her ever increasing horror that she could do nothing as the hand on her neck was massive.

She tried to kick out with her legs but that did nothing as she looked in the firelight of their campfire to see her terrified face looking back at her as she spoke.

"God…please don't kill me! I'll do anything you want!"

The Spartan said nothing as he then moved her closer to him, allowing her to see her full terror in his visor and he spoke in the darkest tone he could muster, it was not in his nature, but intimidation helped him more than once.

"You will answer my questions…and I might let you live, do anything stupid however, I will crush every bone in your neck."

The Raider could tell that this…thing was telling the truth, she could feel the grip there and she had no doubt that he really could crush her neck if he wanted to.

"Okay…I'll answer as best I can."

"Good…now then, first question, what happened here?"

John asked as he waved to the devastated landscape, he had his doubts that this Raider knew anything, but no sense getting some information from a source somewhere.

The Raider looked about and saw what the Spartan meant and shook her head in pain as she spoke out as best she could.

"I…I don't know…"

John decided to add a bit of pressure to his grip, not enough to kill her of course but enough to tell her that her answer was not what he wanted. He further reinforced that by speaking in the same dark tone as well.

"That is not the right answer."

"Akkkk…I s-swear…I swear…I don't know….anything…it's been like…this for…for years now!"

"All right then, do you know anyone who can tell me more?"

"I…I…think…that…the Brotherhood of S-Steel…c-could help, URK!"

"Second question, where do I find the Brotherhood of Steel?"

"I…I…I can't…"

"Can't or won't?"

"I can't…because…they…would fucking…s-shoot me if me or…a-a-anyone they don't know…or like comes to their…base."

John could tell that she was not lying and Cortana confirmed it as she had ran a scan on the woman, using the MJOLNIR's sensors and scanners as a portable lie detector. She might be terrified to hell and from the sudden sound of flowing liquid, had reflexively began to unload her bladder as well. This was to John's disgust as he had expected better and decided that continuing to interrogate this Raider was not going to give him anything else.

He then spoke in a serious tone.

"Good, now I expect you to run, run away and never try this again, and tell your Raider friends to be ready since I will be around for a while. Did you get that?"

The Raider nodded vigorously and John released her, she fell back to the ground on her posterior and looked at the Spartan and quickly got to her feet and high tailed it out of there, unwilling to stay another moment with the giant in armor that just massacred her group without so much as a scratch. She abandoned her weapon as well uncaring for the fact that without any weapon, she was going to be dead meat in the Capital Wasteland.

John turned his attention to the hostages and moved to free them, taking out his Combat Knife to free them from their bonds. He saw them tense and he could understand why as he had easily killed the Raiders and in a very brutal fashion. That was why he spoke in a calmer fashion to them to try and ease their minds.

"It's all right, I'm not going to hurt you."

It took him a few minutes but they were free, he checked the wounded man and found that the Raider's bullet had missed the man's liver as his blood was still deep red, which was a good thing as the round had missed the vital organ. Had it struck the liver, the injury would have been a load worse. He quickly took out his rucksack and took a medical kit to begin treating the man, he removed the bullet gingerly with the help of a pair of sterilized tweezers after giving the man some Polypseudomorphine to dull the pain, once that was done, he placed some Biofoam on the wound and placed a clean cloth with no dirt or moisture and then using the antiseptic self adhering battle dressings to seal the wound.

Once he was done, he spoke to the injured man.

"You all right?"

"Yeah…thanks man…you saved my ass, shame I don't have any caps to pay you or anything."

John had no idea what that meant, but decided to place that aside for the time being as he needed to get some more information. Going to see the Brotherhood of Steel would be a viable option, but there was no sense in getting the lay of the land from someone else.

"You mind if I ask some questions?"

"Sure, seeing as you have us from those Raider maniacs, but that one who you scared the hell out of wasn't kidding, none of us know what happened here, all we know is that some serious war broke out but that was over two hundred years ago, way before any of us were born so we don't know how it happened or way. All I can say is that it fucked up the world big time and we've gotten stuck with this…the Capital Wasteland."

"I see…are there any other settlements in the area?"

The man nodded and replied.

"A few…one is Arefu, the other is Big Town, and the next is Canterbury Commons, there's the Temple of the Union, Megaton, Rivet City, and Paradise Falls. But I'd stay away from that last place I mentioned if I were you."

"Why?"

The man looked at John with an utterly confused expression, but one of the women, namely the African American spoke out.

"Did you come out of a cave or something? No one in their right minds comes within a hundred kilometers of the place unless they are nuts and don't mind being taken as slaves by that cesspit of Slavers."

Cortana was utterly surprised by this revelation and spoke to the Master Chief.

"Slavers, as in the kind of animals who take people, young and old, men women, and children into slavery? The UNSC forbids that sort of thing and even before that; slavery is universally outlawed though it took a number of years to end it utterly, what the heck is going on here?"

John had no idea and he decided to make sure that he was going to keep that place in mind and quickly decided to see what else he could learn from the people. And it seemed that a lot of things here didn't add up in any sense, first off it seemed that Bottle Caps was the currency of choice which made the Spartan wonder just what the heck had happened to the economy of the place, next it seemed that just about everything to do with technology was either worn down and near useless unless seriously repaired, or were oversized paper weights and were nothing more than ruins, another thing was that law and order only existed in the settlements and anything and anyone in the Wasteland was fair game.

They also told him that the Brotherhood of Steel were holed up in the old Pentagon ruins, claiming it as their base of operations as well so the Spartan now had an idea on where to find this bunch. However he had nothing on the records of a Brotherhood of Steel so this new group, might prove to be an unknown until he got some details about them. This was also increased by them telling him of the various creatures that inhabited the Wasteland all of which could be a danger to him if he was not careful.

All of that was dutifully recorded by John and Cortana, placed away for future use if at all needed by them. Once that was done, he decided to let them rest as they had no doubt been starved and beaten by the Raiders before they showed up. This gave John the chance to figure out what sort of weapons the Raiders had on hand, the Pool Cues and the Sledgehammer were useless to him, but the guns were of some level of interest.

He checked the pistol and found absolutely no reference on the UNSC database or even the historical database that Cortana had on hand. He checked the bullet itself and was surprised when he saw that it was not the standard M6 Series Round but a round that had been used in the late 21st century which was the 10mm Round. He had read about this type of round and knew that the 10mm was rendered obsolete and was no longer in use, with only a small handful of civilian collectors.

The round did not have the ability to handle the new generation body armor that was developed in the coming years and those people who had managed to collect these rarely used them and the associated firearms as making them was very impractical and as such, only a few knew how to make them at all.

He directed his attention to the Assault Rifles, the two looked to be in rather bad shape and were in danger of being rendered useless within a period of time of usage, they would soon break down and eventually be nothing more than a mass of ruined parts though the Spartan could guess that if taken apart and salvaged for spare parts, one could be made in better condition at the expense of the other. The same could be said for the pistols and John decided to take his time in recording the data he got. The weapons matched nothing in the UNSC database, though they did have some vague similarities to old fashioned Assault Rifles that were used by militaries in the Earth governments in the past, all the way to the early 22nd Century when the MA Series of Assault Rifles were seen in field use.

For now he focused on the round itself that made the ammunition of the Assault Rifle and at least get something that could tell him more about this Earth he landed into.

To his and Cortana's surprise, this round was not the traditional 7.62mm round that was the basic ammunition of the majority of the Assault Rifle classes in the UNSC with the exception of the MA2B. It was something that like the 10mm round had already ceased production in the 22nd Century due to advancing weapons technology.

"The bullet for these Assault Rifles is a 5.56x 45mm NATO Round? That can't possibly be right. This ammunition is already seen as obsolete and no longer in use well before the end of the 22nd Century, just like the 10mm."

"Cortana, is this really the Earth we left behind?"

For once Cortana was silent as she was trying to find a possible answer to the questions that were going through her mind. She then decided to think about getting more information before she could make a more thorough decision on where they were, so she decided that their concern should be their next course of action in this Earth.

"I honestly don't know, but we need more information before we can make a proper idea on what this Earth is. Until then, let's not get taken in by wild conspiracy ideas. I need to find some form of information that can give us more data to solve this mess. What I can say is that we're going to have to go in prepared, there's no telling what we can encounter here from this moment onwards."

John agreed with Cortana's assessment and decided to pack up and continue his mission of finding more information on what happened to this planet that somehow resembled Earth. Once he was done, he turned to civilians and spoke.

"Go and find a place to hide out for now, take what you can from these Raiders, I doubt they can use them anymore."

The civilians nodded and as the Spartan left, they were now taking what they could possibly use to survive in the Capital Wasteland while the Spartan headed in the other direction.

…

Hours later…

The Spartan moved south to the area where the city of Washington DC once was and along the way, he had begun to spot some of the creatures that were told to him by the civilians he had saved before. There were the Mole Rats which were a bit surprising to the Spartan and the A.I as such creatures usually didn't grow to that size. There were also massive Scorpions that were of different sizes and lengths, not to mention the wild dogs, the two headed Brahmin, Giant Ants, and the like. So far he had no encounters with the Yao Guai, the Deathclaws, or the Mirelurks but he kept his eyes open either way for these threats though the terms made no sense to him.

So far Cortana was running several tests to find out more information and figure out just what the heck had happened to bring them here. This was not Earth in the sense that there was nothing here that was remotely the same as the Earth they knew of and had records of as well. There was no mention of any of these creatures in any of the databases and while some of these creatures like ants, dogs, mole rats, and cows, were native to earth, there was nothing saying about them being mutated to this degree by radiation They soon stumbled on what appeared to vehicles and none of the matched any known profile with the exception of the vehicles used in the years during and after World War 2.

The only difference was that some of these vehicles did not run on fossil fuels, but instead were actually using portable nuclear engines and used nuclear materials as fuel. This was more than enough to confuse the pair as vehicles in the end of the Second World War still used fossil fuels and there was no way that portable nuclear reactors were ever considered feasible, even remotely built in the 1940s. Not to mention the fact that some of these cars appeared to be different from cars made in that era of Humanity's history.

This further reinforced the confusion to the two of them as they moved further onto the direction of Washington DC. The geography was the same as before but some of the names were a bit odd and unknown. Along the way they spotted what appeared to be Army Trucks and there they found skeletons that had shreds of clothing still on them.

Cortana scanned them and confirmed that they were human and apparently had died in a number of ways, some had claw and teeth marks that had the makings of animal attacks and other wounds suggested blunt trauma or bullet wounds.

John managed to salvage some of the same ammunition and even what appeared to a Sniper Rifle of some sort but was in very poor condition by far. The ammunition of this sniper rifle seemed to be the .308, the civilian variant of the 7.62 rounds that he used. He knew that while this was a civilian cartridge, it was possible to use the .308 in his own MA5C if in a pinch so he decided to take the ammunition with him as well as the new Sniper Rifle, something that Cortana was more than keen on talking to him about.

"Care to tell me why we're taking that thing with us? No offense meant, but it looks completely useless to the one you've got with you already."

"Maybe, but you'll never know."

The A.I sighed and decided to let John keep the weapon with him as they soon moved on.

He checked his map of the Washington DC Area and soon determined that he was approaching what appeared to be the town of Ridgefield. It was not much, but he had little choice as he headed in that direction of the town.

John moved quickly to the location while keeping silent and kept any eye out for enemy forces that might be lurking around the area. Once he got in sight of the town, he looked at the sight of it and saw a serious mess, ruins and debris everywhere. He checked his chronometer and it read 11 PM, and it had been a while since he got some shut eye. It was crazy to bunk down in a place like that but it would have to do and with Cortana keeping a good eye on him, he felt relatively safe. He needed to refresh his brain in order to figure out what to make of this place.

But instead of going in there directly, he decided to scan the town carefully to make sure that he was not going to suddenly get surprised by something or someone. The caution he displayed was right on the money as he spotted several disks that were no doubt mines of a sort.

He reached them and promptly disabled one and studied the device to see what it was and who made it, Cortana likewise did the same thing and she reported what she found.

"They appear to be standard military issue mines for cutting off access routes or setting traps, and carry a fairly effective explosive charge, but not as powerful as the kinds of mines we're familiar with in both the UNSC and the Covenant arsenals. But this mine is of human make so there is enough to tell me that there might be company here."

"Right, let's take a peek around."

John switched to thermal vision on his MJOLNIR and sure enough, there appeared to be someone on a ruined three story building and apparently this man was armed with the same weapon as he had managed to salvage before. He took a peak at his options and decided to ignore Ridgefield for the time being and head off to see if there were other places that he could go to get information as well as get some shut eye.

Cortana then spoke to him.

"I guess this place is out, no sense resting here with mines about and some old man who might be insane and who could shoot at us the second he sees us. So where do we go from here?"

"We need to find a defensible area, preferably an abandoned house, afterwards, we go to the next place. The only place that can give us some decent information, and that naturally is the Pentagon and therefore the headquarters of this group known as the Brotherhood of Steel. If they have any answers to what happened here to the DC area and the whole world for that matter, then that's our best bet."

"I see, but I suggest you find yourself some place to bunk down in John, I'll relay commands to the Pioneer's Robots to have a Pelican to be loaded to drop off one of our Warthogs the next day, and considering the way this place looks some firepower and mobility is in order."

John nodded and moved out to try and find a place to bunker down for the night without being exposed to either the elements or the beings who called this place home. It took some more time until he spotted what appeared to be an old train-yard of sorts. He moved carefully into the area and quickly scanned the area as a viable location to rest in, but he decided against it as he moved on to locate a good area to rest in. This time he was in a much faster pace and soon spotted what appeared to be some sort of complex of houses.

Even from a fair distance away, he could see that there was some level of activity there and that meant people. Whether said people were hostile or friendly was unknown, but it was not like he had much in terms of choice. He moved in and kept his eyes open and his MJOLNIR's scanners at the ready.

Once he was close enough, he spotted a man wearing what appeared to be some sort of old fashioned police riot control helmet and what appeared to be a modified black leather jacket with metal parts shaped like armor plating of all things and carried a rifle of sorts on his back, probably a sentry from his location and the way he looked about in the area despite the darkness. He scanned the man's face and determined that he was suffering from some level of stress and sleep deprivation, not the healthiest of combinations, and the surprising thing was that he seemed to be around early twenties. This was something John decided to go out and see for himself so he could find out just what could stress this guy that much..

Just as he arrived into view, the guy turned and quickly reached for his rifle, John could see the shock in the man's face as he did so and he was hardly surprised. Coming out from the dark dressed and armed the way he was, he was no doubt like a monster to this man.

"H-Hold it right there! Make one wrong move and I'll shoot!"

John could tell the man was like an Assault Rifle with the safety permanently disabled and spoke in a calm tone.

"Relax, I'm not here to harm you."

"O-O-Oh yeah, are you telling me the truth?"

"Yes I am, what is this place?"

"This? This is Big Town, our home, such as it is."

John looked at the houses with his Night Vision and had to admit that the name was ironic in many ways. The place appeared to be heavily barricaded and judging from the way the barricades were made, this place saw a lot of action. He also recalled that this was one of the areas mentioned by the civilians he had rescued hours before.

The man then spoke.

"You're not going to come in here and kill us are you?"

The Spartan looked at the man with some level of confusion, but after seeing the various dangers of this 'Capital Wasteland' both the animal and human kind, he could understand the question, no matter how outrageous it sounded to him. And he decided to reply to the question.

"No, but if you and your friends decide to shoot me for no reason, then I'll probably fight back."

The man gulped a bit and then spoke once more.

"All right then, you can come on in, just try not to give us trouble just like the other one I let in, we've already lost some of our friends to those Super Mutants."

That got John's attention easily as he spoke.

"Super Mutants? Care to elaborate Mr…"

"The name's Dusty, just Dusty, and the Super Mutants, they are big, mean, green skinned, and stronger than the regular humans. I thought you were one when you showed up as well. They took out friends Red, Shorty, and a few others…they are probably dead now, or worse…"

"Why would the Super Mutants take your friends?"

"I don't know…and I honestly don't want to know…they've taken others already, just like the Slavers do, the only good thing that happens is when those two groups fight one another. Red used to barter with them to leave us alone, but with her gone…"

John looked it over and saw that the situation was pretty grim for these people, he had no idea as to why this was going on and frankly, he still had no clue on what to make of this odd Earth he landed in. But if there was one thing John could be counted on, is that helping people survive was in his blood and his mentality. He decided to ask Dusty one final question.

"Does anyone know exactly where these Super Mutants took the others?"

Dusty nodded and replied.

"Just ask anyone…now let me be, I have to watch the horizon."

Cortana then spoke to the Spartan once they were in the area of Big Town, or rather the 'town square' as it were had this been a larger town.

"Looks like these guys are borderline desperate, I could feel the worry rolling off of them like a wave, they really need help. Anyway, it seems that the one Dusty mentioned is talking with one of the residents."

The Spartan turned to see an African American woman sitting down on a bench, like Dusty, this one wore a leather jacket, complete with black leather pants and there were sections of armor plating there on the leather clothing like Dusty's own clothing of choice. The young woman looked to be around her late teens to early twenties and showed the kind of stress usually seen on shell shocked civilians. The odd thing was that the woman was carrying a toy rifle of all things…not exactly the best choice for a weapon in a place like this.

John looked the woman over, she carried some sort of device on her left arm and wore what appeared to be some sort of metal armor that was made like some sort of full body armor suit. She had only a headband on so he could see that she had deep red hair and had them in a regular wavy pattern. The woman turned and he saw that she was armed as well, she had an Assault Rifle in her hands that was similar to the ones he had found on the Raiders, but in much better condition, there was also what appeared to be a Combat Knife in a sheath on the left side of her hip and on the right appeared to be some sort of SMG. On her back appeared to be a large pack filled with items of which he had no idea of at the moment but he could bet it would be in the same in terms of content for his own rucksack.

The woman was an attractive sort as well and would have been considered to be a model or one attractive member of the UNSCDF, and John had met a number of female Marines in his time. He could see however that despite her good looks, the violet eyes she had shone with a fire of purpose and intensity. She noted him and so did the one she was talking to before, the woman sitting down was about to panic but seeing that he was not attacking them she seemed to relax. The red haired woman however walked over to the Spartan and spoke to him in a serious but non-threatening tone.

"Who are you?"

The Spartan looked at her carefully to determine if she was indeed capable of using the weapons she had on her person. He noted that while her grip was not the experienced type of grip, she did hold her Assault Rifle in the right way and kept it pointed down and kept her trigger finger away from the trigger. He wagered a guess that she had either been trained, or had to learn from hands on experience.

He then replied to the question.

"Spartan-117."

The woman's stern look turned to confusion as she looked at him carefully and spoke out.

"That's the very odd name."

"It's the only one I've got, and you are?"

The woman relaxed a bit and answered his question.

"The name's Miranda Cole, what exactly are you? You're obviously not a Super Mutant since if you were, you would have roared and tore through the place. "

"That means I'm not one of these Super Mutants, what are you doing here?"

Miranda thought it over and replied as she placed her Assault Rifle on her shoulder with the leather strap she had on the weapon to hold it there on her.

"I came here by accident, I was supposed to head to a place called Minefield to do some research for a book being written by a shop owner in Megaton by the name of Moira Brown. I decided to stop here when I saw the fires and found out about the situation with the Super Mutants."

"I see…"

"So what are you doing here?"

"Came here to get some sleep and move on to the DC area at first light tomorrow."

"You're going into the DC area? What are you going there for?"

"That's classified so I can't really say."

Miranda raised her eyebrow at that and replied.

"You're kidding right?"

"No."

The woman shook her head and then replied to John.

"All right then, I'm planning to help them before I get back to helping Moira with her book, Kimba here told me that the Super Mutants dragged their friends off to the Germantown Police Headquarters north of here. I'm going to help them out so that means I plan to rescue their friends from their captors."

John was surprised by this and so was Cortana as she spoke to the Spartan.

"This woman's got some serious courage, we might not have encountered these 'Super Mutants' just yet ourselves, but they don't sound very friendly either. If she's going to go on her own, she's going to be taking some serious risks."

"I agree."

The Spartan then spoke to the woman once more as his conversations with Cortana were between them so no one knew of his A.I companion's presence.

"You're planning to go by yourself?"

Miranda nodded seriously and replied.

"I am, and if you think I'm crazy to be doing this on my own, I might be. But I've fought those ugly things before so I know what they will do to those they took. I'm not going to let that happen to them. These people have lived in fear too long, and if there is a way to make it right, then I'll do it."

John could tell that she was not kidding and he couldn't help but respect that conviction she had as well as the way she carried herself. She looked to be only nineteen but was taking on a solo mission that could spell her death. He wanted to find out why that was the case and made that intent very clear.

"Care to tell me why?"

"Let's…just say that I want to do this because it's the right thing to do, and besides that, if no one will do it, who will? I know the risks but I made this choice to do this so I am going to see it through."

John thought his options over and then replied. He knew that this was not what he had in mind, but he was not the kind of person to not help people, it was what he had spent his whole life doing, and if it could help him show that he was not a danger to the people in this place, why not?

"All right then, you don't mind if I help you?"

Miranda was surprised by the offer as she looked the Spartan over, taking a look at his weapons, she marveled at the futuristic looking rifle in his hands and that mammoth of a rifle in the back along with that other rifle he had on him. She had never met anyone like this giant of a man in futuristic looking armor and even more so anyone willing to help her without even asking for payment of caps or anything.

Of course she was wary of the man, but she had to admit that having this guy around might actually be a good thing. He certainly was well armed, maybe even better than her and having some help might really make things a darn sight easier for her if she was going to do this for the people of Big Town.

"Okay…but I don't really have a lot to offer as a reward you know, I only have a fairly even number of caps and I need those."

"I don't need any caps as a reward, or anything else for that matter."

"How can I be sure that I can trust you then?"

"I made a promise to help you, and I am a man who keeps my promises."

Miranda was silent at this and she wanted to be sure that she was taking the right course of action by taking this man with her. Her father would approve of her going with a total stranger, even more so with a stranger as well armed and massive as this guy. Who knows what he could do to her when she least expected it. But she felt something about this guy…this Spartan as he called himself that she could work with him.

Her gut feelings had saved her in the past so she trusted them, not blindly anyway but enough to know if and when to trust someone. They warmed her to pay that man Colin in Megaton instead of doing anything for him and that helped her avoid getting into trouble when she learned from Silver, Nova, Simms, and Gob just how bad he was. And they also helped her find a way to convince Leo to kick away her chem. Addiction.

This was why she decided to trust them again and take this man's help.

"All right, I can't say that I completely trust you…but I'm not the kind to turn down help if it's offered. So, when can we leave? The quicker we can find their friends the less likely either of them wind up as chow for those monsters."

"Right now would be a good idea."

"Right."

With that, Miranda Cole, John-117,and Cortana left Big Town and headed back into the Wasteland…unaware that this simple action of helping these people in Big Town was going to be start of something that could change the fates of all the people in the Capital Wasteland. And with them being the ones who were going to start the whole thing.

…

To be continued…

…

Author's Notes:

Well, here we are, my very first Fallout/Halo Crossover, not the most original of stories since some have been done, but it had to happen.

And to be honest, I HAD planned to make a Fallout/Halo crossover way before doing G.I Joe Halo, or Mass Effect X Halo: Spartan Dawn. But since there were already good and promising attempts to make such a crossover I decided to let them take on this idea of a crossover. But since it's been some time and the idea did not disappear from my brain, I decided to get it out and let this idea be read that stay in my noggin for so long.

If there are any corrections needed then tell me, but keep in mind that this is merely an idea that will not be updated for a while.

…

As you can see, John does have a working base of operations and that is the UNSC Destroyer and it will be an operational warship which will play a role in the later story if I decide to go ahead and plan to have the DLCs in the story as well. So we might get to see some ship to ship combat soon. Now keep in mind that with the Pioneer's Slipspace Drive in need of some repairs and more before it is back to being a viable operational system, John might be in this Earth for a while, and that works well with what I have in mind, until If I decide to send him and Cortana back to their reality.

And yes, the Pioneer is familiar since in the book the Fall of Reach it was indeed the same ship that helped John, Kelly, and Sam in their first mission against the Insurrection. This means that this ship is going to be something of a reminder of the past for John.

The Pioneer is fully stocked with all the Spartan would need for independent operations and as such, parts for his weapons and gear, as well as vehicles will be on hand. But of course in the need to keep things balance, John will not use all of them so it's fairly limited as he is not at war yet and all the weapons and gear are in line with what happened at the end of Halo 3 so don't expect Halo Combat Evolved or Halo 2 weapons. Couple all of that with the salvage from the Dawn's own supplies, weapons and equipment, John is pretty well set for what this new world can throw at him. And naturally that will include all the creatures from the original game and the DLCs so it should be exciting for the Spartan while he is there in the Capital Wasteland.

…

Yes, you guessed right, Miranda Cole is the Lone Wanderer and John will be helping her out in the majority of this story. This will naturally have unique effects on the story on Miranda's side as her exploits will now include her new found ally. And as such you can already guess that I am not replacing the Lone Wanderer with the Chief, instead, they are working side by side on this story of mine.

Here's a sample from old Three Dog that I have planned that highlights their actions together.

…

'Helloooooo Capital Wasteland, it is I Three Dog, you're ruler…hear me and obey…oh, sorry, that the other radio station.'

"Man oh man, have I got news for you today children, it seems our new dynamic duo of justice, peace, and all that other crap are at it again! They are once again showing to all of us that there is law and justice in this Wasteland, and giving the bad guys and all the other riff raff that long deserved kick in the ass…or rather, bullet into their black hearts. Pick what you like for yourselves children, because either way is fine by me!'

'Okay, it seems that our beloved duo has now taken a new past time, and that is being the Capital Wasteland's first ever abolitionists, they were seen helping them folks from the Temple of the Union. Nice bunch of fellows who escaped the horrible life of slaves. How you ask, they not only helped them get what they needed to start their move to their new digs in what was once the Lincoln Memorial but they also kicked the living crap out of the slavers that were holed up there to begin with! Looks like open season on defenseless settlers as now officially over…thank God or rather thank Miss Lone Wanderer and her massive armored ally Mr.117 for that.'

'And get this children, they not only got the Temple's people a new place to call their own, but gave them some spanking new weapons and gear to give those slavers getting wild ideas of coming there to take them back to that awful life, a much deserved kick in the balls to boot…how's that for real generosity?'

"So if you are a slave on the run, drop by the new Temple of the Union and keep your head high and feel proud that you now have a place to call home. And for all you slaver scumbags still out there, consider this the long deserved fuck you that you had coming since you started that messed up practice. And to Miss Vault 101 and to Mr. 117 a big and heartfelt thank you from yours truly and all the people in the Wasteland.'

'Oh and one other thing, thanks for giving old Lincoln his head back, about time old Abe got his pieces together.'

'Stay tuned for more news that tells it how it is, Where? Right here in GNR!'

…

Now I need to stress that this is not going to be a full time project, just an idea that I am placing on the plate and therefore will not be updated until I deem it necessary and if it gets enough good marks from all the readers here in the site and I hope that it will be up to the standard.

And before I get asked if I am going to make a pairing for this story, then all that I can say is that it is going to be a while so feel free to come up with what you like.

See you all soon in the New Year!


	2. Chapter 2

Fallout: Hope from Beyond the Stars

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Halo or Fallout, period.

Chapter 1

Rescue Mission…

( ): Thoughts…

…

In the Capital Wasteland….

As the two moved out to the location that was marked to be the area of Germantown, John was moving ahead with his Sniper Rifle while he was being followed by the woman who carried her own weapon carefully. John used his Night Vision to see through the area and avoid possible traps. He signaled to her when they crossed the bridge and spotted a trio of Raiders. John did not want to waste his ammunition in killing them and neither did Miranda as they avoided them for now.

As soon as they moved on, Cortana spoke to the Spartan though this conversation was naturally between the two of them as she had no idea just how people would react if they found her as she had no idea as well on how A.I like her seen by the regular folks in this Earth.

"Chief, you think you can talk to this woman and get some information?"

"Why would you think that?"

"You'll never know, besides, the way she moves tells me that she is hardly the kind you'd find comfortable being in a town for a long period of time. This tells me that she's seen a lot and that device she has on her arm appears to be some sort of personal computer, if you can access that, I can get some field data and some more information that we can use."

John thought it over and saw that Cortana's argument on the matter on hand made good sense and spoke to the woman with him.

"Why are you here?"

Miranda looked at the man and wondered just what she was going to do with that question, she could ignore it as she had no idea why this guy was out here himself and what was his mission supposed to be. However, her father taught her to be honest with a question and while he did tell her not to tell anything she didn't want to, sometimes giving information could be more helpful than keeping it.

With that in mind she replied.

"I left my home to look for my father."

"You're father?"

"My father's name is James, James Cole and he was a doctor in a Vault."

"Vault?"

Miranda looked at John with confusion written all over her face, she everyone in the whole Wasteland knew about Vaults, everyone important in Megaton knew that she had come from a Vault and so far, Three Dog had been informing everyone about her father and her leaving the Vault. So the idea of someone not knowing that she came from a Vault was a bit of a shock point. However she kept herself calm and remembered that this guy was armed and carried gear that looked better than what she had seen before so there was a chance he didn't know.

She filled him in on what a Vault was and Cortana dutifully recorded what she could get from the woman. Miranda explained her childhood there and also about some of the people. She then got into what had forced her out of the Vault, and how she had decided to go and find her father. All the while, John and Cortana recorded the information with the A.I beaming the information back to the Pioneer, and they also began to peace together that this James must have been part of something big to have left his daughter behind, he no doubt believed that since she was old enough and more than capable of taking care of herself so he had something to deal with.

But apparently something went horribly wrong and she had been targeted by the father of her best friend Amata and had to fight not only giant roaches, and some of the security personnel and had to kill one who had tried to harm her friend. He had to give her credit for not killing the man responsible for the death of her other friend and her father's assistant since he was her friend's father. Now she was out here trying to find her father and get some much needed answers on why he left her behind.

But she decided to help out the people here and in turn hope that along the way, she would be able to get the information she needed. So far she had learned that he had gone to GNR, a radio station deep in the ruins of what was once Washington DC. She had decided to do what she could to gain an understanding of the world she had stepped into and as such, gather what she needed before she went after her father.

It was a good move in John's mind, even if she had been out of the Vault in two weeks, that was not enough time to move to what was adeptly described as a warzone to the core. Even with her developing skills and experience, that was not enough to survive in battle zone.

"So you're still looking for him?"

Miranda nodded and replied.

"I love my father and I know that he loves me, but it's not easy for me to know that he left me behind, and I had to fight out of the Vault to live. I need to know why he left and what made him leave in the first place."

John nodded for now and it was here the Cortana spoke to him.

"I looked into the UNSC database and there's no mention of Vault-Tec anywhere in it, that's already confusing as is. So far there are corporations and names that have no mention in the archives in the Pioneer so we're definitely in another Earth."

"Did you just say another Earth? What exactly are you getting Cortana?"

"You remember those theories about other dimensions?"

John thought about that and was utterly confused and wary, he knew Cortana was fine, but what she was suggesting to him sounded more like a science fiction story than an actual working scientifically proven theory.

"Are you suggesting that we came into an alternate Earth? That's a bit farfetched…even for you."

"I know it sounds crazy, even more so coming from me, but so far it seems to be the most likely situation we're in. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes said it best, 'How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, _however improbable_, must be the truth?' It's crazy, but it's all we have at the moment to work with."

John sighed and spoke to her.

"All right, we'll work with that for now Cortana, anything else you have?"

"Nothing yet, but I suggest you get ready for anything big guy, there's no telling what other dangers are out here in this Wasteland."

That was not long before they were able to go to a location that was known as the Hallowed Moors cemetery and John quickly signaled Miranda to take cover as he spotted a number of hostile blips on his MJOLNIR's motion tracker systems. He looked through the scope of his Sniper Rifle and spotted several hulking horrors before him. They looked human but were hardly human as the creatures had some serious muscle mass and height to go with it and they wore what appeared to be some form of crude armor made from salvaged metal parts.

Cortana spoke to John at this point.

"If I am not mistaken, those might be the Super Mutants we've been hearing so much about. They look human to some degree at least, but apparently they looked…twisted or something, like they were transformed by something, could be the radiation or some sort of genetic virus. Better ask Miranda here if these are the Super Mutants, on the off chance that we happen to be wrong.

John allowed Miranda to looked though the Night Vision mode of his Sniper Rifle and asked her if those were indeed the Super Mutants. Miranda nodded and replied that they were no doubt not going to be alone so they had to hurry and take them out as there was no doubt that there was going to be a chance that those changed humans could attack them as well.

The battle did not take long and while these creatures were tough, they were hardly invincible as John moved in and quickly took out the leader who was armed with an assault Rifle and then took out the other who was armed with a Rifle while Miranda quickly fired and took out the legs of the other Super Mutant who was armed with a large wooden plank with nails on it. She quickly reloaded and killed it afterwards. They moved in and found a dark skinned woman who was tied up and they freed her.

She was thankful and offered them some supplies in the same of more 5.56 ammunition, he spoke that Miranda needed it more than he did and so the woman offered it to Miranda, he then asked her if she had seen the Super Mutants take others apart from her. She nodded and directed them to the location of Germantown, confirming that Red and Shorty were indeed taken to that said spot.

The two moved out and eventually encountered more of the Super Mutants and John took them out quickly along with the mutated creature that served as a sentry to them, Along the way, John made sure to collect blood and tissue samples for analysis and making damn sure to get the required sample size to run multiple tests. Cortana wanted him to make sure that she had enough samples t work with once they got back to the Pioneer to make their next move on how to deal with the current mess that they had found themselves in. On a more real time study, John could see that the increased muscle mass was an obvious advantage as it gave great strength, stamina, and running ability. He also noted the increase in terms of skin thickness, almost to the consistency of hard leather, no doubt a defensive adaptation of some sort.

They soon arrived at the Germantown Police HQ and it was a mess, but obviously would make an excellent base to stay in temporarily and serve also as a staging area for operations due to the fact that despite the overall destruction around it, the structure was still intact and the fortifications around it were fairly solid. John and Miranda however had no time to worry about that as they had to deal with more of the Super Mutants and their Centaur watchdogs. These Super Mutants carried the usual selection of close combat weaponry which were Sledge Hammers and Wooden Planks with nails in them, and the others had either Hunting Rifles or Assault Rifles.

They quickly took them out though there was more than one instance when the Super Mutants spotted them and attacked as dawn's first light was already creeping it's way on the Wasteland. Once the patrols were dealt with John salvaged what he and Miranda could and she used the weapons to repair either her own if needed or to repair the ones she felt could still be useful. John then realized that if they succeeded in freeing Red and Shorty, those two were going to need weapons and ammunition and the patrols armed with said weapons had been the ones they had killed already.

He guided her to stow away the weapons and he then tagged the location with a NAV Marker so that they could come back for it later, and he also made sure that the Warthog they would no doubt need in terms of speed, armor, and firepower would be ready for use. Taking the front door would have been easier, but that would alert the Mutants so they found a way in by going at the second floor and soon they were up the stairs and at the door..

…

John was in the lead and moved quietly while crouching as Miranda did the very same thing with the two of them avoiding the walls to prevent their respective armor suits grinding on the masonry and giving away their location. It was here that John's Motion Tracker picked up two red blips and those were no doubt Super Mutants, but they seemed to be in some form of conversation and John stopped moving, signaling for Miranda to stop as well.

He heard them state that they had the female locked up and that meant that Red was in the jail cell area, and when they said that the other one was in the basement, that meant that Shorty was there as well. And hearing how the Super Mutants planned to keep Red and have Shorty for dinner or rather breakfast was more than enough to tell John that these guys were just as cannibalistic as the Grunts, Jackals, and Brutes as all three Covenant species had no problem in eating other intelligent species like humans or even on occasion members of the Covenant.

As the Super Mutants rambled on about their home as well as how they planned to use Red to make more of them, John was already running through two kinds of scenarios, how to kill these two without alerting the others in the room, and what was the reason behind the kidnappings, the rest of the conversation was also interesting as the Mutants, or one of them was talking about remembering being in a dark room and being a woman, though John had a funny feeling that this was not entirely insane ramblings.

Cortana herself listened to the records carefully and gave some of her input, which thankfully was not going to be heard as this was a private conversation between her and John.

"That home they are talking about must be their base of origin, most likely some sort of facility that might have dabbled in biological warfare and genetics manipulation to some degree."

"You think they might be test subjects for some sort of bio-weapons experiment?"

"Maybe, despite their aggressive tendencies, the data we have on hand right now tells me that they must have been normal people before they were changed, which could explain why they can still use fire-arms and retain their mental faculties, figuratively speaking of course. What I want to know is that if it's true that they were human, why is that we see no distinct body differences between them as men and women, the sexual trait indicators to separate men and women are not present at all, though it could be a side effect of what had changed them. And was this some sort of black ops program done by the government or by someone else who had the facilities, resources, manpower, and funds for something?"

"Hmmm…we can work on that later, let's get down to the rescue."

Miranda herself heard the conversations and she herself did not like that at all, the idea of them using Red to make more of themselves sent less than pleasant images into her mind. She had heard about the facts of life from her father and there was more than one instance of some of the men in Vault 101, one of them being Freddie himself hitting on her, and the way Butch tried to hit on Amata as well. Now that she could tolerate to an extent, but the idea of a Super Mutant possibly doing those things to her to make more of them was enough to make her sick to her stomach and said organ to twist into several painful knots in her body.

She managed to hold it together and think that there might be more to what she was hearing, her dad did tell her not to take things at face value after all and it had served her well ever since leaving the Vault. She spotted the Spartan move carefully to her amazement as despite wearing such armor like that and being as tall as he was, the man was remarkably silent. He gently gestured to her to follow him and she was more than willing to do so, she watched as John moved in carefully while leaving his Sniper Rifle on the ground silently and then moving in for a closer look, she followed and as soon as they were in, he moved up and so did she.

They fired quickly and killed both Super Mutants and they quickly moved to secure the area just on the off chance that the other Super Mutants suddenly came at them. Seeing none, John and Miranda checked the room, disabling the mine there and taking the Shotguns after disabling the traps, John then pocketed what appeared to be some sort of power cell, Miranda took some and replied that these Micro fusion Cells could come in handy even if she had no weapons to use them on.

This was a point of interesting for both the Spartan and A.I as they knew that the only few human made Directed Energy Weapons were the Spartan Laser, the Flame Thrower, and the Hard Sound Rifle used by ONI. To learn there was a chance that this alternate world's people had been able to develop working Directed Energy Weapons was a point of interest for them as this could be useful if they were able to take the designs and the science behind their operations with them back to their reality once they figure out how they got here n the very first place ever since they got out of Slipspace.

However, that could wait for now as he had matters to deal with as they cleared out the rooms, they found some other weapons, ammunition, medical supplies and some more mines. Before they moved down however, John decided that it would be better that they split their efforts, he would go down to the basement and free Shorty while she moved on to free Red from her captors.

It was risky, but Miranda was confident that she was more than able to handle that task if it was the best way to free the ones who were being held prisoner. As soon as they got to the bottom, they parted ways and Miranda was not focusing on her mission as she was not going to let these creatures do what they wanted to Red. It was risky, but she could place the stuff she had on hand to help her.

As John moved through, he spotted one Super Mutant and quickly took a nearby stone and tossed it into a nearby room. The sound was enough to make the Super Mutant take out it's Hunting Rifle and it moved towards the room, John quickly moved in and attacked the Super Mutant with a powerful strike to the back of the head with the butt of his MA5C. The sound of a cracking skull was heard as the strike was more than enough to cave in the Super Mutant's skull and the sounds of flowing blood came out. The Spartan quickly moved his Assault Rifle to his back and grabbed the Super Mutant dragged the dead Super Mutant into another room.

No matter how massive the Super Mutant was, John had no problem hauling it away as Miranda covered him from behind. They took the Super Mutant's Rifle and ammunition and John made his move to the basement to deal with rescuing Shorty while Miranda made her move to go and rescue Red.

…

Miranda decided to use her Knife to quietly kill the Radroaches that infested the location and at least in this way, there was less chance of the Super Mutants hearing her had she resorted to using her Assault Rifle. It was difficult work and she had managed to take out several mines and decided to get ready for a fight as she heard the sounds of several Super Mutants still in the building. She managed to spot the first and quickly made noise and that was more than enough to force the Super Mutant to come to her area and she readied a nearby chair.

She prayed that this would work and as soon as the Super Mutant came, she swung hard and struck the creature in the chest, the creature roared out and lashed out with an arm at her, forcing her to roll out of the way and she got her Assault Rifle and quickly closed the distance between her and the Super Mutant and placed the barrel of her Assault Rifle underneath the creature's chin and fired the bullets hard and fast.

The roar of the weapon was muzzled by the fact that her weapon was merely a hair's width from her target and results were very bloody as the head of the Super Mutant exploded. As soon as it dropped, Miranda knew that this was going to get harder from now on as she moved deeper into the building. She readied herself for a possible encounter with the Super Mutant in the building and soon she was spotted by the Super Mutant, the being roared out and began to fire the Assault Rifle that it had and that was more than enough to force her to move to cover, thankfully her armor held on and protected her.

Miranda knew that she had to be fast and hit hard as she fired several rounds of her own from cover, her rounds were able to hit the target and she was able to wound the Super Mutant though this was the kind she knew as a Brute and they were tougher and better armored than the regular Super Mutants, and this one was no doubt the leader of the force of Super Mutants that had called this former police location as their base of operations. She fired her weapon and soon reloaded it as it finally ran out of ammunition and she managed to spot that the Super Mutant was doing the same, she knew that she was running low on options and as such, decided to move as she took a Frag Mine, activated it and tossed it to the ground and moved back as the Super Mutant Brute roared and charged after her…moving right over the mine moments after it landed. The mine's proximity sensor was tripped and the mine exploded, catching the Super Mutant Brute off Guard as Miranda turned and fired another burst of her Assault Rifle and this was enough to finally kill the Brute as she aimed for the head and emptied her clip into that and then to the chest as well.

As soon as the Super Mutant lay dead, she moved forward, feeling some aches due to the bullets that had hit her armor, but placed that aside and searched the creature, soon enough she was able to find a key and moved to the cell block area. Once she got there she managed to kill a pair of Radroaches that sensed her and became hostile, along the way, she also took a book and soon found Red, an African American woman wearing a red Jumpsuit and a head wrap with glasses.

Red was surprised at this as she had never expected to see another person apart from Shorty who had been taken, but she could see that the woman was very well armed and not a new captive of the Super Mutants.

"Who are you?"

"The name is Miranda, Miranda Cole, you're Red I take it?"

"Yeah? Why are…wait, you're here to rescue us?"

"Yeah, I talked with your friend Kimba back at Big Town and decided to help them out by freeing you."

"That's great news…wait, my friend Shorty is here too! They took him to the basement!"

"I know, they said they were only taking you and they were going to eat him with the others."

Red blanched as she knew now that the rumors of the Super Mutants being cannibals that she had been hearing for a while now was true. Miranda saw that and understood the feeling as she and the Spartan had seen the bags that the Super Mutants store their food in, she then replied.

"Don't worry, my partner is already going down there to rescue him."

That raised Red's spirits up as she nodded.

"Great!"

"Good, by the way, we'll have to get you out first, here take this Hunting Assault Rifle and some ammunition, it's not much but it will have to do until my partner gets back."

Red nodded but took the gun slowly and Miranda saw that while she knew how to hold the weapon, the way she carried it was enough to tell her that Red had no idea how to use one. During her own escape from the Vault after her father left and subsequent life in the Wasteland, she learned how to see who actually knew how to use a firearm and it was obvious Red knew next to nothing about it.

…

In the Basement…

John heard the battles upstairs and he hoped that Miranda was going to be all right when he came back up there. He placed that aside and moved through the room and spotted some Radroaches, the giant sized cockroaches were utterly disgusting to him but he ignored them as he soon picked up a conversation with a young man who had an Asian accent and was no doubt Shorty and the Super Mutant who was no doubt with him. He moved in and looked to see the Super Mutant and spotted the creature to be armed with an Assault Rifle, he decided to move quickly and fired several bursts of his silenced MA5C and the creature roared and tried to find the shooter.

He spotted the Spartan but that was all he was going to see as the Spartan fired the last of the bullets and then whacked aside the arm carrying the Assault Rifle and smashed right into the Super Mutant. And the results were very brutal as the Super Mutant was sent a good distance back into the nearby wall and cabinet with a resounding crash that actually made the building shake a bit. The creature groaned as it's chest moved in a very unsightly fashion, showing that it's ribs were utterly crushed and the Spartan finished it off with one powerful punch to the neck that quickly broke the creature's neck bones and killed it.

He turned to see Shorty looking at him with absolute shock in his face, that was something he was quite used to seeing on people and ignored it as he spoke calmly to the young man who was around his late teens from the way his face looked as well as the way he carried himself.

"You're Shorty right?"

"Y-Yeah…who…or…what are you?"

John replied to that as he took the Super Mutant's Assault Rifle and pilfered the dead creature's ammunition.

"My name is not important, what is important is that I'm here to rescue you. My companion is also there rescuing your friend so we should not stay any longer."

That made Shorty look at the Spartan in a different light when there had been suspicion before, however the Spartan had a feeling that the man was not going to be entirely convinced. He finished his salvaging run and freed him by quickly untying the man and then replied to him while offering the Assault Rifle and the ammunition.

"Take these, you might need them."

Shorty grinned and replied in an enthusiastic tone.

"Hell yeah!"

Cortana replied to that show of confidence.

" A big change from before, but I hope that he does not get too carried away, that kind of attitude is going to kill him."

"I know."

As they moved away, John decided to simply smash his boot on the heads of the Radroaches, making several disgusting sounds as the creatures died at his actions. He also checked the basement as he had seen a firing range as well as some intact lockers and ammunition boxes as well as first aid kits. He took out another Assault Rifle as well as more ammunition, a Hunting Rifle, a 10mm Pistol, Stim Packs, RadX and several others. John then tore the door open in what he accurately guessed was an ammunition and weapons locker, there were some extra ammunition and weapons, along with something that was no doubt the Fat-man that the Super Mutants in the top floor talked about.

It was an odd weapon but no doubt was a heavy weapon system from it's looks and the weight it had.

John decided to come back for that later as he moved out to meet with Miranda and hope that she was able to rescue Red.

…

As soon as the Spartan came up, they spotted Miranda and Red and the two were happy to see one another, John managed to see that Miranda was all right and had managed to take care of the enemies in the floor. They decided to check the rooms of the headquarters once more to see if there was anything they could use, on in this case, Miranda could use. They found the locked door and Miranda showed that she had a good deal of skill in lock-picking despite losing three of her bobby pins in the first three attempts.

They found more medical supplies and John took what appeared to be something called Radaway, a type of drug used to flush out radioactive particles, yet another thing that they could study as well as some more ammunition and a pair of Hunting Rifles, 10mm Pistols, two Assault Rifles, and what appeared to be a fairly good condition Shotgun with a Drum magazine. Miranda smiled and they took the stuff there and soon were out in the same way that John and Miranda had come in before.

However, John knew that with this mush supplies, there was a chance that they would be weighed down and could be easy pickings for any force that got the drop on them. And even if he had what it took to counter them well enough on his own and Miranda was a better shot, the other two were liabilities though losing them was not an option.

He then spoke to Cortana.

"Cortana, is that Pelican with the warthog coming down?"

"Yeah, I've located a good enough area with the Pioneer's scanners to drop it off, and there is enough room there in the warthog for either Red or Shorty to ride in as well as the supplies. I'm pretty sure the second they see it, they are going to be surprised."

"Uh huh, so what did you send?"

"The one with the M41, better that then the one with the Gauss Turret as that thing is a bit overpowered in my opinion. Word of advice, I recommend keeping Red and Shorty out of reach from the gun for obvious reasons. Have Miranda man the thing."

"Have a civilian on the M41?"

"I know you don't like it, and it's true, but we can't be choosers, and besides, so far she seems to be a much better choice than those two as she does know how to handle a weapon properly."

John conceded that and that was when the roar of the Pelican's engines was heard by not just him but the others

Red, and Shorty gasped at the Pelican as it came down carrying one of the loaded Warthogs which was armed with an M41 LAAG, even Miranda was surprised by the sight of the vehicle itself as most if not all the vehicles she had seen were either ruined husks or veritable booby traps used to kill unsuspecting people. Once the vehicle was released and on the ground the Pelican took off and headed back to the Pioneer which was still moving over the country though keeping it's distance from the surface to remain out of sight.

As soon as the Spartan moved to the vehicle, they recovered and Miranda spoke as she looked at the massive vehicle that was somehow way more impressive and seemed to scream military like in those military holo-tapes that she used to watch on movie night back in Vault 101.

"What the heck is this thing?"

"M12 Force Application Vehicle or the Warthog as called by the regular soldiers, as for the transport earlier, it's called a Pelican. But we can worry about that later, get on the turret."

"Excuse me?"

John looked at Miranda and explained carefully.

"The weapon on the back is an M41 LAAG, I need you to man it and cover the area until we load what we have."

Miranda decided that now was not the right time to argue, and besides, that weapon looked very interesting for her. It was a bit of a struggle to get on to the turret and after a brief but informative lecture from the Spartan, she was a lot more comfortable with the weapon. John moved back and took the weapons they found and placed them on the back while using magnetic strapping tape to lock the weapons to the vehicle, this weapon naturally included the Fat-man.

Once the supplies were locked down, the Spartan took to the vehicle while Red was taking to the passenger seat though she naturally had some level of difficulty of getting onto the vehicle and Shorty had to ride on the vehicle and hold on tight as John managed to find some magnetic tape to keep Shorty there on the vehicle. Once the Spartan was sure that Shorty and the gear was not going to be flung out, he got on the vehicle and activated the Warthog. The three residents of the Capital Wasteland were a bit surprised to feel the rumble of the vehicle and before they could react, John was now moving the vehicle out of the area of Germantown. Once they were out, the Spartan gunned the engine and soon the warthog was off into the morning and making quite a racket as well.

The ride was unlike anything Red, Shorty had ever been in and the same could be said for Miranda. The wasteland literally moved like a blur to them as the sun came up and the vehicle moved through the area at a high pace. Red and Shorty were lucky to be secured and Miranda was smart enough to adjust herself to the movements of the Warthog despite the fact that she had never ridden a vehicle before in her life.

"THIS IS CRAZY!"

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH! I FEEL SICK!"

The cries and more besides came from Red and Shorty as the warthog was moving over high areas and rises, literally flying over the land and landing down with some level of discomfort, but that lasted briefly as the Warthog's suspension system was more than enough to counter that feeling. That did not make the two any more comfortable though as they had not gotten used to it.

Miranda on the other hand was elated and spoke it well.

"I SO HAVE TO DRIVE THIS THING!"

Cortana recorded everything and spoke to John.

"I think we're going to have to get used to having the trip be loud, shame we can't play any music, even if this is a military vehicle, it does have the ability to pick up radio signals and play music."

"No thank you."

…

Back at Big Town…

As the Warthog came to the front of Big Town, everyone in the makeshift fortress looked at the vehicle with shock, namely due to the fact that this was the first time had ever seen anything like it. Miranda was still on the M41 but soon got off along with Shorty and Red who had been in the passenger seat. The Spartan got out of the driver's seat and they moved into the area and the people rejoiced.

John on the other hand was a bit more serious in what he was thinking as there was no doubt that the Super Mutants were going to come back and try again in getting their hands on the people of Big Town.

And that was confirmed as Red spoke to the two of them.

"I know that you both risked a lot to rescue me and Shorty, but I overheard them talking about sending in another raiding force while I was in prison, they were now doubt gathering others and moving here when you rescued us."

Miranda then replied.

"So they're coming back?"

"Yes, and this time, they are in a larger number, I don't know just what they have as weapons, but if they bring in a large group, this place is finished."

Miranda shook her head and then moved to the Warthog and took out a number of the guns that they had salvaged along with some ammunition and gave them to Red and spoke.

"I can help train you on how to defend yourselves."

Red's face lit up and Miranda turned to face the Spartan this time and spoke to him.

"I know I'm asking a lot, but we've made it this far and I hope that you can help these people out one more time."

John thought about it and shrugged, he might as well get this over and done with since helping these people survive was a good a cause as he was going to find, though he had a feeling that if these people were going to have a chance, this place was going to need some very serious upgrades as well them having proper fortifications and training in many skills.

Cortana agreed and she was already running through the data that would help them in getting the place bunkered up as soon as the Super Mutant threat was dealt with.

"I will, but if this works, these guys are going to have to learn more than just how to fight back, plus fortifying this place is a wise idea. That however can wait, so what's the plan?"

Miranda pointed to the Hunting Rifles, Assault Rifles, and Pistols that they were able to recover from the Police's lock up area, along with an actual pair of Drum Shotguns. The woman smiled and replied to the question that the Spartan had uttered.

"Learning how to shoot properly would be nice."

John nodded and Red agreed with the idea as she called the others to get the gear and soon they were all armed and Miranda as well as John got them to the scrap-yard to get some shooting practice done. John spotted also a trio of Robots there, one appeared to be some sort of humanoid helper type though it had the colors of the US Army, and from what he could guess was a Protectron as was told to him by Miranda, the other robot in the heap looked like it had a Gatling Gun for an arm and a missile launcher on the other, showing a more military build than the other one and had the armor to go with it. The tripod leg with heavy duty wheel designs told him that while it was large and no doubt well armored it had excellent speed and mobility.

Cortana noted that and decided that once they got the Mutant problem dealt with, they were going to get these units up and operational to have some extra muscle.

The group lined up and it was going to be a shootout run, Shorty and Red still had those salvaged and repaired Assault Rifles that Miranda had given them while Pappy had one also, Kimba had a Hunting Rifle, Bittercup had a Pistol, and Dusty still had his own Rifle. John decided to let Miranda handle the training since she was more than able to handle that part of the course while he decided to check on what he could use to help with.

That was where he entered the clinic and spotted a man who was badly hurt, Cortana then spoke to the Spartan concerning the newly spotted citizen of Big Town.

"He looks pretty banged up, but some good medical treatment can fix that."

John nodded and got to removing the medical kit he had in his rucksack, once he got that device out, he went back to treating the man. It took a while but the man recovered and seemed to be in a trance as he opened his eyes.

"Wha…what happened…where…?"

John shook his head and took the man out to meet the others, the man was surprised by his appearance but that was soon placed out of his mind when Red spotted him and called him to get a weapon and join them. The man had no idea what was going on but did just that and soon had the Shotgun in his hand and soon was blasting away. John moved back and got the Warthog away from sight so it would be a surprise and he was not alone as Miranda accompanied him as the residents of Big Town were already doing well on their own in the training bit with their newly given fire-arms. It was here that John's Motion Tracker spotted the Mutants and he quickly spoke to Miranda.

"They're here…get the people ready."

The former Vault Dweller nodded as she quickly got to Big Town and that left the Spartan to face the two first Super Mutants that came at the town, John quickly readied his MA5C and removed the Silencer of the Assault Rifle as the time for stealth was long over and the time to go loud. The Super Mutants spotted the Spartan and roared as the Master Chief quickly fired at them and shredded the first of the green skinned mutants. The shredded carcass fell as John turned his attention to the second Super Mutant, though this time there was another joining in and armed with a Sledge Hammer no less.

John fired the last amount of bullets in his weapon to kill the second Super Mutant but he was already out and quickly reloaded he weapon, ready to dodge the possible attack.

That did not happen however as a volley of shots came out and the Spartan looked to see the Super Mutant riddled with holes of various sizes, telling him that the last Super Mutant had been shot by a variety of calibers, he glanced a bit to the back to see Miranda armed with the new Sniper Rifle that used the .308 rounds and the other residents, it seemed that the extra training kicked in as unlike the time they rescued Red and Shorty, they didn't accidentally hit him.

But there was no time to release as the Spartan spotted at least five more blips coming in and he quickly moved to speak to the group.

"We've got five more coming in, get into a firing position and wait for Miranda to give the signal."

Miranda was quickly surprised as she had not expected to be the one to do this part of the whole defense but nodded as she quickly got the rest of the people of Big Town to head to the road that lead north to the bridge. She had Red and Shorty take cover in the walls around one house, Bittercup and Kimba near another, Pappy behind the tree, Flash and Timebomb on the ground, and Dusty with her as she aimed with her new Sniper Rifle. John moved back to the Warthog and got the vehicles operational as he could see that none of the people there in the way of the massive ATV.

It was not long before Miranda spotted the Super Mutants and it was there that she spotted one of them carrying what appeared to be a minigun, she groaned mentally at that as she knew that if that one got the minigun 'spooled' up, they were going to have a hard time, she only hoped that the others would be all right as she decided to aim at the minigun carrying Super Mutant first. She aims and fires the weapon, aiming for the right arm to cripple it, the bullet flies out as she briefly sees the vapor trail as it hit the Super Mutant, and though it was a glancing blow, the bullet tore a good chunk of the transformed human's leather like skin and forced it back.

However, the very second she fired the weapon, the other Super Mutants came in and they were better armed than the first three that they had taken out, two of them had Assault Rifles and the other two had Sledge hammers. The four charged and as soon as they were in view she tried to aim at the first one in the lead but her Sniper Rifle jams at the worst time and she shouted to them.

"Fire!"

The residents of Big Town do just that and soon the first Super Mutants were hit by a barrage of fire, both were badly wounded by this attack and they dropped dead as they had no chance to reach for their grenades. But not the Super Mutants came in as the ones armed with the Assault Rifles came in as well as the one armed with the minigun. They soon fired into the area, forcing the residents to take cover as the bullets were flying all over the place. And while they had more guns, they didn't have the ammunition or the experience.

The Super Mutants who were still alive laughed in their usually berserk and blood thirsty fashions as they fired on at the people of Big Town. They no doubt thought that with them taking cover, they could move in and finish them off, bad choice of actions. They heard the roar of an engine and soon the Warthog appears before them and they spot the Spartan quickly getting out and leaping to the back of the vehicle and arming up the gun as well.

The Super Mutants might not have any idea what the massive vehicle was, but they knew a threat when they saw one and all three of them aimed with weapons at the Warthog and soon the warthog was being hit by the combined power of the Super Mutants as 5mm and 5.56mm rounds hit the vehicles.

However, their rounds did not have the power, mass, or velocity to be that effective as the bullets hit the vehicle and seemed to be as effective as thrown jelly beans at a steel wall. They did gouge into the vehicles, but made only minor scratches as the Warthog's Titanium-cermaic armor skin was more than strong enough to take the hits. And that was more than enough time for the Spartan to warm up the M41 and unleash his own form of payback.

The spinning sound of the much larger M41 was soon drowned by the roars of the bullets that came out of the weapon. These rounds were all .50 caliber bullets, monstrous rounds by most standards of the modern day, and these rounds were more than enough to punch through the Super Mutants as they literally danced with the hits of the bullets into their bodies. It was not long before the last three Super Mutants were torn apart as the first two were literally chewed to bits and the last one was turned into bloody confetti and all three of them took turns dropping in a pool of their own blood mixed with their guts as well as chunks of flesh..

As soon as the last Super Mutant fell down in a bloody, mangled heap the residents of Big Town looked on at their success with awe and disbelief, they turned to see the Master Chief still aiming the Warthog's M41 LAAG and the barrels were still spinning and showing smoke while Miranda carried her new Sniper Rifle in hand as she was laying the massive weapon on the hood of the vehicle to act as a stability platform.

Flash said it best when he and the others looked at the still smoking machine gun.

"I WANT one of those!"

…

In the next few days to at least two to three weeks, Cortana, John, and Miranda had spent training the residents of Big Town on how to properly defend themselves from enemy attackers and from the other dangerous creatures that littered the Capital Wasteland. The good news was that the weapons that they had been able to salvage from the Super Mutants as well as the still intact areas of the former Police HQ were useful though John decided to keep the Fat Man well away from them unless they really needed it.

He had Flash and Time bomb learn how to use their weapons effectively along with Dusty, Kimba, Shorty, Pappy and Bittercup so they could defend the place a load better than before, along with Red. He was helped by Miranda who was able to give her support when he was not available for the matters that had to be dealt with. It was a slight annoyance for him to have to deal with training these people basic defense and other skills, but seeing as how unprepared they were, there was nothing to be gained by NOT teaching them.

He made sure that they learned how to fight as a team, place suppression fire, marksmanship, fire team discipline, and a few other essential skills that he knew would be valuable in defending themselves, along with how to set up ambushes traps, and the like. He also taught them other skills as well in order to survive better in the world that they called home and at least their existing skills helped in that regard.

Pappy's skills with repairs were not up to the standard, but the skills he had were good enough to help maintain and repair their weapons for now. And he had taken the time to teach the youth how to do it properly. The man was not quite sold on it, but the fact that he, Cortana, and Miranda had saved their friends and taught them how to fight to defend themselves was enough to help him relax. John also taught him how to maintain and repair the Sentry Robot and the Protectron if they were damaged in battle.

Bittercup might have had an odd nature that reminiscent of the Goth culture on Earth as well as having too much of an intimate attraction on death, but her skills in salvaging as well as sneaking about were helpful and he took advantage of that to help her be able to search for things that could be found in the wasteland which could really help them survive. The only thing he and Cortana did not approve of was her odd attraction to Miranda as well as him. It was not that he had an issue with the woman being bisexual, but it was not something that he was keen on dealing with. Regardless, he ignored it and so did Miranda though the young woman humored Bittercup on more than one instance.

Red's medical skills were good enough to survive here, but John insisted with Cortana helping out in giving her all the data and training she would need to help patch up injuries and more such as radiation poisoning, venomous bites, shrapnel wounds, broken bones, burns, and more. It was hard work but at least she would be a heck of a lot better off in keeping herself and her fellow residents alive.

Dusty had some good marksmanship skills along with Kimba and as such, he took turns training them on how to use their rifles for long range as snipers. They were also going to take turns every now and then to keep an eye on anything happening around Big Town. And they could also help as scouts if they and others in Big Town decided to go out of Big Town to find food and supplies if they had to.

All in all, they were going to be all right at least and though they were certainly not military grade people, they were good as a militia force and considering what he had seen so far, it was enough for now. Miranda said the same thing as she stated that compared to before when she came here, they looked really vulnerable and could have been dead meat in a concerted attack, now however, they looked a lot better off.

…

It was not limited to training the residents either as John decided that they should at least fortify the place as he knew that things were going to come by this place and cause all sorts of havoc. He would routinely make trips to Germantown and take away sections of debris such as metal fences, sandbags, masonry, metal beams, damaged walls, barb wire and the like.

This was possible since he had used the Pelican to haul the supplies bto Big Town while making sure that he was not going to be dealing with anyone who might decide to attack him while moving the supplies. The Pelican could easily carry a Scorpion Tank which is at least sixty six tons, so carrying things like those he salvaged from the Police HQ was a cakewalk for the multipurpose drop-ship and gunship. He was naturally accompanied by Miranda who relished the feel of flying in such a transport until they took what they could from the HQ of Germantown that could be useful. They even took the tents and beddings as well as the lockers to help with anything else.

Once the two of them got the supplies back to Big Town, he went to work using them to surround Big Town with a wall that was at least ten feet high and at least a foot thick with ramps for the people to move over and watch the walls. He also connected a mobile generator he got from the Pioneer to a trio of moving gates constructed from concrete on rollers to serve as a next line of protection to allow the people of Big Town to keep identified threats, both human and not out of their homes. The Generator along with the other unit that provided power to Big Town used Hydrogen power which was why two houses were converted to store water and be used as fuel to the Generators. John and Cortana were able to find a viable water supply near Big Town that was self sustaining despite the radiation.

That was why he had to install a radiation filtering device into the generators that could filter out the water that they could collect using the special containers that were made to help carry water that they made and lined with Lead Foil in the middle to prevent radiation poisoning to the group if and when they needed to search for water.

He and the others also built a lookout tower in the middle of their former fortress home before they expanded the place. It was at least twenty feet high and could be easily accessed by a ladder made from metal bars that were placed into a tall pillar of concrete that was brought along to allow Kimba and Dusty to go into the tower to watch over Big Town with their weapons. There were mattresses there as well to allow them to lie down in comfort when looking over the wasteland in relays. The tower was like a house but had wide and low windows to allow them to see the surrounding area in shifts and was made from metal, sandbags, and concrete and had a light there for the two to see with. There were welded in tables from metal and chairs on the four areas to allow the two to rotate their watch locations if they needed to.

Throughout all this, there were occasional Raiders coming by as well as some slavers, it was not long before those people were forced away or killed entirely by the now better trained and armed residents of Big Town. John and Miranda helped them salvage what they needed including food, weapons, ammunition, and spare parts as well for themselves or for trading.

…

John was now on the driver's seat of the Warthog outside of the now northern gate of the fully fortified area of Big Town and they were not alone as Miranda was currently shaking hands with Red as she and the other Big Town residents were getting ready to see them off as Miranda planned to finish her previous task of going to the town of Minefield. He focused on checking the damage of the plating on the Warthog from the fight two weeks before and found the same to be rather easy to patch up on the Pioneer's Vehicle Bay. Once that was done, he looked to see that Miranda was now on the Warthog and that was enough for them to say goodbye to the people as John had to help Miranda with her mission to Minefield, no matter how reckless it sounded to him

As they drove away from Big Town in the Warthog with John in the driver's seat and Miranda in the passenger's seat, Miranda looked at the now fortified place and smiled as she spoke.

"I got to admit, if I was attacking that place now…I'd be thinking twice."

John shrugged as they moved to the direction of Minefield and they soon reached the location and encountered several Raiders, but before the men could react, the Spartan drove the Warthog through them and sent one foolish Raider flying with a powerful swipe and sent the Raider hard into the nearby boulder. The Raiders tried to react but John quickly turned the vehicle around and he soon got out as Miranda covered him with her Assault Rifle as he quickly got to the M41.

The Raiders only had time to fire a few shots at the Warthog before a hailstorm of .50 cal rounds roared from the weapon and killed many of them. The last Raider tried to escape but she was quickly cut in half by the mammoth rounds that came from the weapon. As soon as it was over the two looked about and Miranda decided to salvage what she could from the slain Raiders, she had learned early on after leaving the Vault that there was no sense in not taking what she could from the dead, however she made sure not to steal from good people which was why she would not hesitate to take from dead hostile humans.

She got some spare ammunition that were .32 rounds, 5.56mm rounds, and found a pair of grenades as well. Once she was done with that, she looked at the pockets of the slain Raiders, making an effort not to worry about the massive damage done by the M41 and her own weapons, She knew how sadistic and brutal these Raiders were to people so any form of mercy was lost to them. She found some more Bottle Caps and found some food in the same of two cans of Cram, and Mutfruit, she took those and they were soon on the move towards Minefield though John spoke once more to her.

"Why are you coming here anyway?"

"Like I said, it's a favor from Moira, she wants to make that book of hers to help people survive in the Wasteland and I think it's a good book so far…though I have to admit that I had some serious close calls."

"Like what?"

"I had to go into a super mart crawling with Raiders for one, had a few close calls and some scars to prove it, but those Stim-packs helped, along with the food and medicine I found, plus that Protectron I found and re-activated helped loads."

"You went into an enemy held location for food and medicine?"

John had to give the young woman credit for being able to make it out alive, but also called her actions foolish as she could have been killed by the Raiders. It was a foolish idea but he kept in mind that with the Earth they were in like this, people would do anything to survive and find medicine and food.

"I knew it was crazy, but it was for a good cause, and besides that, I was patched up after I got some rest in my home there. Afterwards, I needed to get irradiated to show her the effects of radiation."

That made John raise an eyebrow and he spoke.

"How many rads did you get into yourself for that?"

"At least six hundred rads…and yes, I am still alive, I figured I should give her a good sample size instead of the two hundred she needed. It worked and I survived…but she told me I got…a mutation."

John looked at Miranda and while she could not see his face, he was looking at her with some level of surprise as well as a bit of consternation. Getting one's self shot up for food and medicine was hard for him to swallow, but getting's self irradiated with a very dangerous amount of radiation to serve as a test subject for someone trying to study the effects of radiation sickness was pushing it.

Cortana herself commented on that with a look of shock and disbelief.

"Either she's off her rocker to allow herself to do that or she's got a seriously strong body to take that much radiation and still be alive. But I think that we need to find out just what sort of mutation she got, it might be fatal for all we know."

John nodded and spoke to her.

"How did you survive?"

Miranda smiled slightly.

"Through the skin of my teeth I guess, I took a small amount of Buff Out to toughen up just in case my body's endurance couldn't handle it. My dad…he…he always said I had the health of a fully grown and well bred race horse. Anyway, that mutation is not deadly, but for some reason if I get badly irradiated to at least four hundred rads, I can heal any crippled limbs and be back on my feet. So yeah, I get sick really bad, but I can heal any crippled limbs as well so it's not too bad a thing."

John shook his head and Cortana was astonished by this as she began to calculate just what could possibly allow a human to regenerate damage to limbs with such a risky action as irradiating themselves. But that was cut short when they were now in the town, John then decided to tell Miranda about the dangers here.

"They named this placed Minefield for a reason."

"I know about the mines…and they say it's haunted, but I haven't seen any ghosts yet."

"There's a reason, I came here earlier and there's a sniper in the ruined concrete building in the middle of town, he's got an excellent view of the town so I won't be surprised if he starts to shoot at us."

Miranda gulped a bit but kept her cool as she moved out, hoping that the Sniper in question was out of sleep and decided to get some shut eye so she could d this without getting spotted. But that idea was not going to be of much help since she was now being shot at by someone else. John quickly got to her with his mammoth Sniper Rifle at the ready and aimed at the location where the shots came from.

He spotted the old man and saw that he was aiming at someone else, he quickly wagered a guess that he was aiming for Miranda and he quickly spotted the young woman trying to get to cover as he was, but the woman barely had time to react when the man suddenly began firing, forcing her to duck. But John was surprised as the rounds were at a car, however, he recalled the engines and fuel of these cars and quickly moved towards Miranda who was hiding and quickly moved to protect her from the blast.

John's Geiger counter went up the second he heard the explosion a distance from him as the car exploded quickly. The blast was not enough to harm his as his shields handled the shrapnel and radiation while his armor was radiation hardened and he was not in danger of being hit by radiation, but that was enough to tell him that reasoning with the sniper was out of the question.

He decided to reply as he heard the man reloading his weapon, he made a quick check on Miranda, seeing that she was all right and readied his weapon. The old man was a good sniper, but he was different, while nowhere near as good as Linda…he was no slouch as he spotted the man and aimed his weapon in both hands and pressed the trigger.

…

BOOM!

That was the only sound that Arkansas was going to ever hear as the massive bullet from the Master Chief's SRS99D S2 AM Sniper Rifle hit him dead center in the chest. The old man died quickly and painlessly, which was a blessing to most as the bullet from the Sniper Rifle would have done far worse had it hit anywhere else in his body.

As soon as the man dropped dead, John relaxed though he decided to check on Miranda to see if she was truly all right. He looked at her and she seemed to be trying to get her breath back, no doubt from being suddenly shot at again.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah…damn…thanks for the save."

John nodded and they were soon on the move and began to explore the town. The woman took the time to take the mines they spotted, stating that bringing one to Moira would be a good way to help make the book better, she also felt that making money by selling these things to those who could use it would be helpful to not just the people who can find a use for them, but for her as well.

He decided to help and soon, they cleared the area of mines though John himself decided to check on the old man he had just killed. Once he got there, he could see the man bleeding from the wound as he fell three stories up. He shook his head at the loss of life and closed the man's eyes and decided to take the man's weapon as well as his ammunition as Miranda arrived. The woman looked at the dead old man and spoke to the Spartan.

"Was it really necessary?"

"I was either I killed him or he killed you, I don't like killing an old man, but he was not hesitating when he fired at you to kill you."

"I guess…still, I don't know why he would stay here all alone…maybe he was a resident here a long time ago."

"Maybe."

As soon as they scoured the area, finding ammunition as well as food and supplies along with spare weapons from the safes in the houses after taking the key in the man's pocket, they moved out. Thankfully the warthog was very much still intact and after allowing Miranda to catch her breath, the two of them began to make their way back to Megaton. In the mean time, Cortana had been busy running some work on several key things while they were on the surface of this Earth.

She needed some data on what was their next move after meeting the Brotherhood of Steel and getting SOME idea on what happened to Earth.

…

Miranda looked at John carefully as they made their way back to the direction of Megaton on the Warthog, she hoped that she could convince Sheriff Lucas to allow the man into the town. She had no idea how the man would received considering how well armed he was when she first ran into him in Big Town. But after he had helped her rescue Red and Shorty, train the residents of Big Town to fight and defend themselves, and finally turn their place into a safe haven, then she was going to try her best to allow him to enter.

She however had no idea just how he was going to react the very second he was going to be in Megaton.

It was then that John reached for an area of the vehicle's dashboard and soon enough, she guessed it was some sort of radio system and soon she recognized the voice.

'GNR, Three Dog…all you need to know…'

'And here's me with the news…'

'Okay children, I know that I have been busy about a lot of things, but here's some news on Big Town. If that place kind of sounds familiar, it was that town with all those young folks who got kicked out of that all kid place…can't remember the name though. That place dropped off the radar for three whole weeks, and I thought that the Super Mutants came there and cleared the place out or maybe the slavers came back to finally take them all away…and I thought that Miss Vault 101 turned her back on the poor souls, turning from a heroine to an evil bitch.'

'Well worry not children! Miss Vault 101 has NOT turned to the dark side! In fact she rescued their friends and gave them Frankenstein' a well deserved kick in the balls for their kidnapping ways. But here's the real surprise…she was not alone! That's right folks, Miss Vault 101 has company, and it's not a regular person doing good deeds folks…oh no. It's an armored giant of a man who's got one wicked ride with a mini-gun on the back and carries some serious firepower!'

'I have no idea who our mysterious new resident is children, but I can say this much about him, he is dangerous. Kills Super Mutants like that they ducks in a turkey shoot, has some wicked technology and can open a can of serious whoop ass at the same time. And he's on the side of our very own Dignitary! And not only did they rescue them folks from Big Town, but taught how to fight and even turned what was once a small death trap of a town into one sweet fortress!'

'Looks like those guys in Big Town are now living large, thanks to Miss Vault 101 and her new partner…so thanks for saving them folks in Big Town Miss 101, and to you Mr. Armored Mystery…welcome to the Capital Wasteland and here's hoping you can do more for the people out here. By the way, I sure hope that you don't mind if I can see that ride of yours man.'

'Oh and sorry for the bitch comment 101, I'll make sure to give you something as a way of saying sorry if you drop by here in my pad beautiful DC.'

'And that is it for the news children, here is a song from Billy Holiday, Crazy He Calls Me.'

As the song began to play, Miranda looked at John with a smile and replied.

"Looks like introducing you to the people in Megaton might not be too hard, if Three Dog knows you're here, then that's good news for us at the moment. Come on, Megaton is that way."

John sighed at this, how the meeting with the people of this Megaton place was going to go down was something that he had next to no idea about. He could only hope that it was not going to result in him getting shot at. He however placed that out of his mind for now as he focused on driving to the location that was shown to him by Cortana after accessing Miranda's Pip-Boy earlier

…

To be continued…

…

Author's Notes:

Now you're all wondering why I placed a chapter right?

Simply put it was time for me to add some more meat into the story, and also to get ready since my house is going to be demolished soon next month and I have to move out so I have no idea if and when I can get my chance to write stories once more. So I figured that adding a chapter here will be enough for this for now and if I have enough time, I will crank out some more stories with interesting results in them for all of you readers.

…

Now someone asked if the sensors are faulty in the Pioneer on why I was not parking the Pioneer on the other side of North America. I would like to point out that for the purpose of the story, it is the Fallout 3 universe I am using here so it's natural that the Pioneer would be in THAT side of North America…otherwise I would have used the Fallout 1 or 2 universe.

Now as you can guess from what happened to Big Town after several weeks, the presence of the Chief in the DC area is going to have some interesting changes to it. Now on how will the meeting between the Chief and the Brotherhood of Steel will turn out is up for debate, but it should be interesting to say the least. And you can bet that John and Cortana will be busy once they get there.

And as you have read, Three Dog is now talking about John even though he has yet to meet John, how he takes the Spartan and his A.I companion is going to be interesting as well. And as you can see, Miranda is a Goof Karma type character and as such, she is going to be a good lady while still being able to kick the hell out of those who are her foes, and you can bet that she will be enemies with Talon Company so there's no doubt that a battle with them and the Spartan is going to happen and it will be one very bloody affair for those heartless mercenary bastards.

…

As for Lemons, you can send me ideas on it if you REALLY want me to make lemons for this story though I can see that you are thinking of Miranda and John or John and Sarah Lyons, or both women at the same time.

Tempting to be honest, but let's not jump the gun just yet on it. We have more than enough time for the lemons to be made as I have to make some for my other Halo stories to be fair for all the readers.

…

Now on the topic of energy weapons in Fallout, John will be interested in them and will no doubt take some for study and testing back into the Pioneer as I plan for him to make routine trips back to the Destroyer every now and then. These energy weapons are of great interest as these are human made and are not common in the UNSC so it would make sense that both he and Cortana will take them.

The designs will be recorded into the Dawn's database and also John will be facing them in the coming story chapters so we can see how the Fallout Every Weapons stack up against the MJOLNIR's Shields and Armor as both have been repaired and back to operating in full power. If anyone who is a Fallout fan expects the same results with the Energy Weapons against the Chief's MJOLNIR in combat, I hate to say it but it's not going to be a clear cut result as it has not yet happened.

And if you ask if John plans to make his own versions, the answer is maybe.

…

If anyone thinks that the UNSC vehicles in the Pioneer are going to go back to being the indestructible vehicles that they were in the first Halo game which is Halo Combat Evolved, then I will say that you are wrong. They will be damaged and they will be destroyed once in a while. It just takes time. Keep in mind that while the weapons in Fallout 3 are not to be laughed at, I am adding realism in the sense that the vast majority of the bullets in the game don't have the overall punch power to harm a Warthog unless they were being fired in a veritable sandstorm of projectiles. The heavier weapons will naturally have a better chance but the rarity of said ammunition will be a factor.

The heavy weapons would fare better though the Fat-man and the Missile Launcher are better choices, along with the Gatling Lasers, and the Tesla Cannon, but those will come in later. The same can be said for the Energy weapons though not by much.

And wait until I deal with the Unique weapons BEFORE mentioning them to me, I have used them before so I know how deadly they happen to be for myself as well. They will be included so don't ask if they are going to be included if you review the story after I post this story.

The Warthog is the basic one armed with the M41 and soon we will bring in the Gauss warthog, the Troop Transport Warthog, and the one from the game Halo: Reach, the one armed with the Missile Turret fort extra punch power. The other Vehicles will appear on their own time and will be used befitting the battles that they will soon be taking a part in and you can bet that these units are going to be very interesting for the people of the Wasteland to see once they appear and start kicking the holy hell out of the area.

And for the anonymous guy asking about why I did not have the Slipspace Drive from the Dawn used in place for the Pioneer's damaged Slipspace Drive…the answer is that the Drive in question is gone, it's in the other half that the Arbiter was in. That is why there is no way for the Chief and Cortana to take that out from the Frigate.

…

See you all soon, and if I update another story, I will inform you all on the exact date that my house will be going bye-bye okay?


	3. Chapter 3

Fallout: Hope from Beyond the Stars

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Fallout and Halo so let's not make an issue of it…

Chapter 2

Megaton

( ): Thoughts

…

As the Warthog made it's way to the location of Megaton, the Spartan scanned the area to make sure that there was nothing that was going to try and catch him off guard and he was going to make sure that he was going to make every effort to avoid being caught off guard. He looked around quickly to see the ruined lands and the town known as Springvale as he had been able to read on the map.

Miranda herself was looking at the area while carrying her Assault Rifle and ready to fire though she was still going to have to get used to riding such a vehicle. As they passed the school, John saw that the Raiders who were rumored to be there had not come out to attack, he wondered about that and decided that could wait for a better time as he focused on maneuvering the Warthog through the ruins.

Once they were there, he spotted the enclosed area that could be Megaton and he could also see the nearby sign with the name that confirmed the it was indeed the town of Megaton. He looked it over quickly and deemed it to be strong to withstand conventional assaults, but not specially coordinated ones.

Comparing the place however to the bases and cities of the UNSC made him see it as a flimsy fort in the middle of the world, while it's location was ideal and the terrain made attacking the place risky along with the high walls, he doubted that the metal walls were not going to withstand a serious assault from a determined foe. He had no doubt had this been a military target for the UNSC, they would have torn through the place easily, and even the Covenant would have laughed at the looks of Megaton.

However, he made sure to keep that train of thought to himself for now. He had to make sure that if and when he came to places like this, he kept himself as unnoticeable as possible though doing that was going to be a hard task and nigh impossible considering how he looked.

Cortana likewise nodded at that.

"Considering how we wound up being in the news, I feel that going incognito is not going to be a walk in the park. Anyway, keep your eyes and ears open John, just because they don't have the kind of firepower that is a major threat just yet, does not mean you can go easy or soft."

"Since when does a Spartan get soft?"

Cortana laughed gently at that and replied.

"Just testing, anyway, it looks like we're already here so let's stop for a while."

"What about the Warthog, leaving it here is a bad idea you know."

"I know so that is why I am sending down the Pelican so you can latch it there and get some new things to use for the rest of the stay there."

John nodded at that and as soon as they were well in walking distance from the town, John asked Miranda to wait. She wondered what he meant by that and soon got her answer as the Pelican made it's appearance once more. Once the transport landed next to them safely, the Spartan went to work securing the Warthog and locking it into place to be called upon when it's speed ,maneuverability, firepower, and armor would be used by them.

Along the way, John removed a supply canister and took out one of the Weapon/Anti-Vehicle Model 6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle or the Spartan Laser as well as a pair of M7S Caseless SMGs and a set of attachments to his MA5C, which included a 40mm M301 Grenade Launcher Attachment, and an Underslung Shotgun Attachment. Once he was done, he placed those items into the rucksack and also the spare ammunition packs that were in the supply canister.

Once that was done, the Pelican Drop-ship took off and was soon off into the sky while leaving John and Miranda there on the surface as the Spartan decided to remove the Flashlight attachment from his MA5C and placed it aside while locking in the Grenade Launcher attachment just in case he needed something to deliver extra firepower without him having to use up his still present supply of grenades which he knew he was going to have the chance to use at some point in time but it was not going to be today of all days.

As they walked back to Megaton, the Spartan looked to see a man wearing a full leather ensemble that resembled the same outfit from Dusty and Kimba, he also saw the same rifle and no doubt in the Spartan's mind the man was a sentry. He spotted the odd looking robot and he could see that it was both greeter and security model.

Miranda was the first one before the gate that was now parting and the Spartan followed close behind, though he could sense that the man armed with the rifle on the upper catwalks was keeping a very sharp eye on him and no doubt that he was not going to let up in keeping him under full surveillance. As the two of them parted the gates with the creaking sound which told him and Cortana that there were generators that operated the gate systems, they found themselves in what appeared to be a collection of arranged parts scavenged vehicles that were used to make homes of some sort.

John and Cortana scanned the buildings carefully and saw the parts and began to determine that they were taken from vehicles, that ranged from cars, buses, trucks, utility vehicles, and also from ruined houses, buildings, as well as airplanes of some sort. The Spartan could see that while they were sturdy and could provide good enough protection, they were not build to withstand something that could unleash a serious assault on the buildings themselves and they were not military grade shelters and were no doubt held by duct tape, rubber cement, super glue, welds, and a lot of prayers.

To who in question he had no idea.

Cortana then spoke.

"These parts must have been salvaged from a location a fair distance from here, and judging by the majority of the parts being aircraft grade material, they must have gotten the parts from an airport, no doubt a civilian one from the looks of the parts."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah…you recall the exact appearance and dimensions of the Fat Man bomb?"

"Yes, why?"

"Take a gander in the middle of the town."

John did so and he looked on in surprise, and for good reason, there was a nuclear warhead shaped just like the said bomb that was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki in the days of World War 2. He was slowly being convinced that this indeed was a different Earth as he knew that the designs of the Fat Man and the Little Boy were no longer in use by the nuclear arsenals in the UNSC. He scanned it and noted that while it did have nuclear radiation emission signals, they were fairly weak and as such were not too harmful unless one stayed there too long.

John however had great concerns as building a town around a potentially active nuclear weapon was an open invitation to being incinerated in a heart beat

"What is THAT doing here?"

Cortana replied to that question in her usual fashion.

"I have no idea, but I guess now why this town is called Megaton, maybe we should ask the man coming to talk to us, and judging from the clothes and the way he moves, he might be the 'sheriff' of this town."

He and Miranda were soon greeted by an African American dressed in what appeared to be the kind of garb one found on a cowboy in the old Western movies and carried what appeared to be a variant of the now obsolete AK-47 Kalashnikov Assault Rifle used many times in Earth's history before the universal adaptation of the MA Series of Assault Rifles. The Spartan studied the man carefully and could see that the man was something of authority and power here. No doubt he was indeed the sheriff in this place and that was something to the Spartan considering the way the land looked and what he had learned so far, having a figure of law and authority was a good sign.

The man smiled at Miranda and spoke to her.

"Good to see you again girl, been a while since you came back here."

"Nice to see you too Sheriff, anything happened while I was away?"

"Not much, but I can say that everyone, even that snake Colin is breathing a load better now that the bomb there is truly dead and gone thanks to you deactivating it. I've made sure to keep your house here out of anyone's reach so don't worry about it, everything in it is still pretty much there."

"Thanks a great deal Sheriff, I thought that being gone that long would have made people think I was dead or something."

Lucas smiled at that and replied.

"No need for that, I should be the one thanking you for that bomb disarming job…anyway, heard about what you did to that Big Town place, nice work, and this fellow right here is the one who helped you?"

Lucas pointed his gaze to John and Miranda nodded as she introduced the two men.

"Yep, this is Spartan-117, Spartan; I'd like you to meet Lucas Simms, sheriff and sometime Mayor of Megaton."

John gave the man a salute as despite Lucas being a civilian and as such not a member of any military branch that he knew of, he knew that the man was by definition a person of authority. Which after all he had seen was rare indeed in this Wasteland. And as par his training and lifestyle as a Spartan he was required to treat those of high rank who were not his enemies with respect befitting their position.

"Pleasure to meet you sir."

Lucas smirked a bit at that and decided not to shake hands, considering what he was about hear from the radio about this man, he was pure military and the way he carried himself proved that to be true in his eyes. He saluted the man though he had to admit that it felt a bit awkward to be doing that to a being who was somehow as tall as a Super Mutant and no doubt just as strong or even stronger if the reports were about right, but carried a lot of firepower from what he could see at the moment.

"Pleasure to meet you too, but I do have a need to address, I heard about how you helped those folks in Big Town and all with the aid of our own citizen Miranda, but you are new around here, so here's my rule when you are in Megaton, you treat my people well and we won't have problems, don't treat my people nice…well, you can wager a guess what the outcome is going to be, are we clear son?"

John looked at the man with some measure of respect, this Lucas seemed to be truly dedicated to keeping the peace as well as the rule of law and order, something that the Spartan had no problem respecting. He decided to reply in the same respectful fashion to the question that came from the African American Sheriff before him.

"Understood sir."

Lucas wished he could see the man's face to see if he was lying to him, but he kept his armor on and he could not help but sense that trying to make him take off the helmet would be like trying to convince Colin to be less of a crook and more of an honest man. But if he traveled with Miranda then he was not all bad in that sense.

"Good, now I need to go to work so if you two need anything, then you can find me or just call."

John looked at Miranda and spoke to her with some level of surprise and respect.

"You disarmed that bomb?"

Miranda nodded and explained how it happened.

"I had some demolition experience when I was a kid in the Vault, playing with some books and all; I took a look at the bomb and decided to deactivate the triggering mechanism and render the bomb inactive. Trust me it was not easy but I managed to pull it off."

John was impressed and so was Cortana as she spoke to the Spartan.

"She's got skills, those bombs might be obsolete and outdated in many ways to the nukes we have in the UNSC, but disarming one alone is a feat."

"Yeah, I noticed."

John then spoke to Miranda.

"Nice work."

Miranda smiled and replied as well.

"Thanks, but I did it so these people here deserve not to live in fear, my father…he always taught me to do the right thing, and I am not going to disappoint my father in any possible fashion. Anyway, welcome to Megaton, I have to give this device to Moira and get what she promised me, feel free to look about. But try not to cause trouble, Mr. Simms is pretty picky about law and order around here."

John nodded and decided to let the matter be as Miranda then went up to the building that had the tag Moira's Crater side Supply and he was quick to guess that the place was where the woman Moira was.

In the mean time John decided to check on his MJOLNIR by doing a full systems check and while he was doing this, he also checked on the rest of his gear to make sure that they were all working properly. Once he got the green light, he decided to move around the area while carrying his MA5C and looking about slowly, taking in all the details. As he had predicted, his arrival was causing a number of people to either gawk at him while keeping their distance or move away and give him a wide berth.

He didn't bother with the details for now as he explored what he could, but that was when his attention was drawn by a voice.

"That's some fancy shit you got on big man."

John turned and there was a grizzled looking man in the same black leather ensemble worn by Dusty. But unlike the formerly pessimistic youth he had encountered a few weeks ago and trained, John saw that the man was load different from Dusty and carried himself like a seasoned fighter and he could see the Chinese Assault Rifle there. Something about the man spelled trouble for the Spartan, he however kept himself calm and focused. So far this new person had not attacked him so there was little reason for him to retaliate just yet.

The man looked at the Spartan a bit more and could not help but feel a bit tense himself. Jericho had been a veteran Raider for years and had been in his fair share of battles for survival in the wasteland. And he had killed a good deal of people as well, but this guy in the green and black Power Armor was something he had never faced before. Not to mention those weapons he had on him were not like anything he had seen before, and he had seen a LOT of weapons in the past. He was especially interested in that massive cannon on the back.

(Damn, that ain't no Missile Launcher or a Fat-Man or anything I know of, it looks more like some freaking cannon.)

Jericho managed to relax and then decided that antagonizing this man or whatever he was in that suit was not worth his time but he decided to ask one more question and see what this guy was all about.

"You got a name?"

John then replied.

"Spartan-117."

"Heh, all right then, the name's Jericho by the way, now I have my own business, see ya around."

With that the former Raider walked away and headed to a nearby restaurant place that had the name tag of the Brass Lantern. John did not take his eyes of the man as what he had felt before told him to be really wary of the man. Mendez had always taught him to keep a close eye on anyone that had an aura of trouble on them as they usually were trouble, and this Jericho had a good deal of it.

Cortana herself did not like the man.

"That guy carries himself like a fighter, but he certainly is not from around here, he moves wrong and acts wrong too."

"I know…but he's not attacking us and even if he is not acting as if he was a native of this place, fighting him can be seen the wrong way."

The A.I agreed and spoke to her long time protector.

"At any rate, let's explore this place and wait to see if Miranda is done."

…

In Moriarty's Saloon…

Miranda entered the Saloon and shook her head, she had just agreed to go into the Anchorage War Memorial to plant some sort of observations module into a spawning ground of a horde of Mirelurks that apparently made the place their home. She heard about Mirelurks before from a passing trader in foodstuffs, calling them deadly in battle with their claws and tough shells as well as the fact that shooting them in the face was the best way to kill them.

She had no idea what Moira wanted to accomplish with the plan but she agreed and she would have to see it through. But for now she needed a drink and as soon as she got in there, she sat down and Gob spoke with a smile on his face.

"Hey there, you look like you could use a drink."

"Gob, you don't know the half of it."

The Ghoul laughed and took out what he knew was Miranda's drink of choice, and that was Whiskey. The woman took the bottle and poured some in and drank the whole drink straight up. She felt the burning sensation hit her and it felt all right as she enjoyed herself.

Gob turned away and decided to do some checking in the store room, just as Colin appeared, the owner of the Saloon spoke to the former Vault Dweller in his usual fashion.

"Looks you've had a hell of a run, and now you're here to drink and relax eh?"

Miranda nodded at that as she finished her drink and allowed the stuff to run through her, Colin took the bottle and then replied.

"You spent three weeks helping them folks in Big Town, can't imagine why you'd burn your time and caps on them, but that's your business."

Miranda glared a bit at Colin but ignored that and then replied.

"My choice to make."

"Right, anyway, you're by any chance hurting for some caps? I can imagine that doing all that must have been a blow to your savings huh?"

Miranda might be feeling the burn of her drink, but she was quickly alert as she looked at the man.

"What are you asking?"

"A job mostly, if you do it, I can give you some caps to help you tide your way."

This was something that made Miranda ever more wary as she knew that Colin was not the kind to give caps for free without something in exchange. Having been able to his character for herself and learning about him from Silver, a woman she had met in Springvale after leaving the Vault, she was sure that this job was something she was not going to like in the least.

"What sort of job are you asking me to take?"

"Just a retrieval job…some time before, I have another…employee by the name of Silver, she was in the same job as Nova you see. I figured that having a roof over her head, a room and board, food, drink and caps were enough."

"But she decided to rob me and leave in the dead of night. She could not have gotten far though as the Wasteland is not the place you want to be running around in. If you find her, use whatever mean to you think are all right to make her give me back my caps."

"So are you interested in the job?"

Miranda's eyes narrowed and she barely managed to contain a snarl as she already knew just who Moriarty wanted her to find, and kill. When she had left the Vault and stumbled into Springvale, she had managed to meet Silver. The woman had panicked and threatened her with her revolver and demanded if Moriarty had sent her. Of course she had no idea who Moriarty was and managed to convince Silver the very same thing.

As soon as she was able to calm the woman down, she asked just who was Moriarty and there she learned just who the man was. And she also learned just what was it that Moriarty had made Silver do. And the thought of him making her do that for caps, taking the life of the woman who wanted only to live free and away from a bastard like him was enough to get Miranda angry as she stood up and spoke to him.

"No thanks."

With that, she turned and walked out of the Saloon, intent on getting some clean air, if there was something like clean air into her lungs after having to deal with the man. However as she made her way to the other side of the town, she briefly glanced to the side and through the corner of her eye spotted Moriarty following her.

She did not like that and quickly turned to face him and spoke.

"Why are you following me?"

Colin used all his charm and replied.

"I just wanted to know why you're so upset with the job I offered to you."

"I am not interested in the job Colin, go find someone else. I've got other things to handle right now."

Colin frowned a bit and replied.

"But that doesn't make sense at all, it's a perfectly simple job, just go and find Silver and convince her to turn over the caps she took from me, it's not much is it?"

"It is to me. Let me make it clear Colin, find someone else and stop following me, I already paid you my caps to tell me where my father is, so let's leave it at that."

Colin glared and moved forward to grab Miranda by the shoulder as she had turned to walk away from hi. He made her turn and he spoke darkly.

"Listen here girl, don't try acting all uppity with me, I want to know why you won't take the job, I saw something in your eyes that tells me you know something about what I told you, or am I wrong?"

Miranda glared at the man and pushed his hand away and replied.

"That's not your business."

Colin fumed and replied.

"It is my CAPS she took from me woman! So it is my fucking business! You know something, so spill it right now!"

Miranda turned away and that was when Colin had enough and tried to grab her again, but he was not aware that he had been stalked by another person who had been following them the very second he had stalked after Miranda and before he could say anything coherent, his next batch of words came out in a scream.

"AAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHH!"

The scream in question was more than enough to get the attention of all the people in Megaton and for good reason as they soon saw the Spartan holding Moriarty in a death grip by the neck.

…

Moriarty looked at the Spartan who now had him by the throat as he tried to free himself, while Miranda watched in some level of amusement. She had expected Colin to try something to her but did not expect the Spartan to have actually followed her with him placing his MA5C on his back with the massive Spartan Laser horizontal to him, not the most comfortable of positions, but it was the only way to carry both weapons in his mind

Colin gasped as the pressure felt like he was going to pass out and he looked to see his own reflection in the golden reflective face plate looking back at him. He finally managed to get some breath back and spoke to the man as best he could…if it was a man in that green and black armor.

"L-L-Let…me g-g-go!"

The Master Chief had been looking about when he spotted the man following Miranda when she had come down from what was supposed to be the town saloon and from the way he moved, the Spartan could already tell that the men had less than noble intentions to the former Vault Resident, and the fact that Miranda wanted nothing to do with the man and hearing their argument was more than enough to convince the Spartan to intervene and sure enough, he moved out of the corner and quickly restrained the man.

He looked at the man carefully and what he saw from him told him that the guy was not the kind one would trust even with a thimble of warm spit from a mule. Even more so as he had seen that he was not shy about using lethal force if he had to on someone and that someone happened to be Miranda herself.

"Not until you tell me why you were following her."

The people of Megaton were already going there to find out just what was going on with the green and black armored man with the golden visor and the new Citizen of their town. Naturally in the lead was Lucas and even Jericho as he was part of the defense group of the town of Megaton as well so as much as he did not like the idea, he had to help the man who was the law around the town.

Lucas Simms was very curious as to what happened and just how the heck Colin wound up in the grip of the giant of the man. Not that he didn't enjoy the sight of the man in that position as he had always been wary of Colin's shady dealings and apart from Jericho; he wanted to make sure that not everyone was going to be taken into his act.

But he had to maintain law and as much as he did not want to do it, Colin was a legitimate businessman here in Megaton and as such, he had to make sure that he did not wind up dead. He was honor bound to serve the law as well as justice even if it meant helping protect the man who he secretly considering to be a criminal boss and that was why he spoke seriously to the Spartan.

"Care to explain to me what the devil is going on here in my town?"

Colin turned and managed to speak.

"A-A-About bloody time…you came Simms….tell this…fucking….armored nut to let…me go!"

John then replied.

"Not until you tell me what you were doing, the only time I am letting you go is when you answer my question."

Lucas wanted to speak but he could tell that the man with Miranda was not going to budge on the matter, and while he wanted to make his point come across to the giant, he was sure that there had to SOME reason as to why this happened. He then turned to Miranda and spoke.

"Look girl, I like you and all with you taking out that bomb and making it safe, but unless you can convince your friend to tell me what is going on, or you tell me, I am going to have to take this guy in. It might be like telling a hungry Deathclaw not to eat you or tear you up for the hell of it and eat you later but I have a job to do here."

Miranda knew that she was the only one to explain what was going on and she replied.

"Colin was asking me back in his saloon to do a job for him, to find a former...employee of his, a woman named Silver to collect something she stole from him. I know already what he had in mind, I was to kill Silver and collect the money from her if she resisted, he might think that I don't know what he really had in mind, but I can read between the lines and he wants Silver dead so he would have no more loose ends to his businesses here in Megaton."

Lucas's eyes widened at that as it was a serious charge and he replied.

"That's a serious accusation girl, how do you know all of this anyway? I doubt that you were able to know all of this in mere minutes."

"Because I met Silver long before I ever came here to Megaton, she told me that she had worked with Moriarty doing favors for men, anyone can guess what that line of work was. She wanted out and decided to do it by doing one last fling with Colin to convince him to let her go. But instead of being able to leave, Colin turned back on his word, he had no plan on letting Silver go, and she took the caps she felt she was owed and left. That was when he brought Nova into his bar, and it would have been the end of it. But he was not going to let Silver go, that was why he asked me to find her and get his supposed stolen caps even if it meant taking Silver's life."

Colin glared darkly at Miranda, though he was trying as despite his anger, he could not vent his fury at the daughter of James as the giant still held him by the throat, of course, he did manage to speak out his anger at her actions exposing his plans to have Silver dealt with.

"Y-Y-You…b-bitch, you dare to b-backstab me –l-like this? I should have never told you…where your fucking…daddy was. I should have told you he was…"

John heard enough and gently tightened his grip while speaking in a cold and emotionless tone.

"One more word out of you, I will personally crush all the bones in your neck."

That was more than enough to silence Moriarty as Lucas looked at the two and he could tell from Miranda's look that she meant every word of this and he knew that she was not the kind of person to lie about it. He then glared at Colin and spoke seriously to the man.

"Looks like there's some skeletons in your closet you don't want out Moriarty."

"Y-Y-You c-can't be serious Simms!"

"Oh I am, I always had a feeling that something about you was off and now it seems I was right on the money, asking someone to kill another person for caps is not something that is welcome here. You asking Miranda to kill this Silver lady is already asking for trouble."

"Sh-She was a w-whore…"

Miranda was angry the very second she heard that come out of his mouth and quickly moved to kick him but John stopped her with a quick command.

"No."

Miranda looked at the Spartan with shock at what he had just said and wondered just why the man was defending this piece of shit for a human being. John then spoke to Colin in a dark tone as he continued to hold the Irishman up by the throat in his hand.

"You are not going anywhere, you will leave this town and never come back."

Colin then replied in a defiant tone.

"W-What the hell…do you think you…can do to me?"

John then replied as he reached behind him and took out an injection device and jabbed it into Moriarty's neck the very second he released him. The motions only took a second as the man cried as he reached for his neck. Once John saw that he recovered, he reached for a nearby device that looked like an old fashioned I-Pod device that was quite popular in his Earth and he replied.

"I just injected a special tracking explosive into your neck, and into your veins, right now it is going to go into your heart via blood flow. Once that device settles there, it will lie in wait and wait for the signal."

Colin recovered and spoke as he got his breath back.

"What fucking signal?"

"This."

John pressed the trigger on the device and a series of beeping sounds came out from the device, and it soon began to get louder and faster as John spoke once more in the same tone of emotionless control.

"This is the triggering signal for the bomb in your heart, right now it's on a timer system, you have at least three minutes to get out of Megaton before that minute runs out…and then, well you're a smart man, you can figure that all out easily enough on your own. There is enough explosive to turn your heart into shredded meat but not enough to blow you into a hundred messy pieces. It's got a full one thousand yards range so the very second you are in the range…"

Colin looked utterly shocked out of his skin and tried to tell if the man was lying, but the armor and helmet with the reflective golden visor told him nothing and the next word John said was more than enough to make him feel more chills run up and down his spine.

"You've got two and a half minutes Colin and a thousand yards is a LONG way."

He didn't need any more prodding as the owner of Megaton's bar ran away from the crowd, pushing and shoving anyone out of the way in a mad dash for the gates and was soon out of sight. The others moved after the man and so did the Spartan and when they were out of there, they spotted Colin running through Springvale like there was a whole swarm of Death claws after him John looked on and when he was sure that Colin was already a full three hundred yards from Megaton and Springvale, he turned to walk back into Megaton when Lucas stopped him, the man's visage in a look of disgust and rage.

"That stunt you pulled was beyond wrong, putting a bomb in a man's body even if he is scum is low and sickening, something only slavers ever do to people, Colin might be guilty of planning murder, but what you did has crossed the line. You got anything to say in your defense before I kick you out of my town?"

John then replied.

"I lied."

Lucas and the rest of the townsfolk were caught off guard by that and even Miranda was surprised by that as she looked at the man and spoke.

"What do you mean you lied?"

"I lied about it being an explosive, it's actually a harmless tracking signal system, and the beeping was the way of the tracking device here to tell me where my target was. Colin didn't know about that since I never told anyone about it, all he thinks is that if he comes within one thousand yards of Megaton, he is going to go boom. Which you all know is now far from the truth of things, he'll be alive, but he won't be around to make people's lives hell anymore since he thinks that he is going to become heartless…literally ."

As that began to sink into the minds of the people there, Miranda could not help but begin to smirk and soon break out into a fit of laughter as she recalled the way that Colin looked the second he swallowed the lie of the Spartan. Of course with the armor the man had on and the fact that his visor hid his face so well made it clear that reading him was not something the untested were ready for.

Jericho could not help but grin and burst out laughing as well as he looked at the path that Colin ran away from like a whipped dog being chased by wolves as well as he turned to the Spartan after laughing quite a bit.

"Nice moves there big man, you gave Colin such a shock that he flat out pissed himself while running…never thought I would see that happen in a million years."

Lucas had to grin at that a bit and he spoke.

"Sneaky and underhanded…not what I'd approve of, but at least it works. So I guess Moriarty is gone from here, not that it's a bad thing but who exactly is going to take over the bar?"

Miranda had an idea and spoke.

"Why not Gob?"

"Gob?"

"Yeah, he's a decent sort even if he is a Ghoul, and he certainly is a lot better off than most. Besides, he has no reason to be like his former boss and he's honest as far as I know."

Lucas thought it over and had to admit that Gob was the better sort and at least it was going to be a load easier since Gob was indeed nothing like Colin, Gob may be a Ghoul, but he was the decent kind of Ghoul.

"All right then, I'll talk to Gob and see if he does not mind taking or the Saloon, but I think we're not going to see that last of Moriarty, even with him gone, I've got no doubt that the man's going to make some serious moves in getting his revenge, even more so for you two. But I've got a feeling you two can handle that well enough on your own. Now then, let's go and get things organized around here."

As the Megaton townsfolk moved back into town, the Spartan kept a close watch first along with Miranda, moving about slowly around the town while looking for any sign of the now deposed bar owner and overall crime boss. It was natural though that it was John who provided the long range scanning and as such, he was Miranda's eyes and ears.

As they continued looking about, he noted that Miranda stopped and looked at a certain direction, he noted the sad look on her face and was a bit confused but that did not last for very long as he wagered a guess that where she was long at right now was the same location of the Vault that had once been her home.

He then spoke to her.

"That's where it is right?"

Miranda nodded and spoke.

"Yes…I know there is no going back there, and maybe I don't want to either…at least not until I find my father."

"You think your friend Amata has talked some sense into her father?"

"I hope so, her dad always disliked me even though me and Amata were the best of friends, but he should listen to her. Come on, let's go."

John saw that Miranda was not going to budge on the matter and so did Cortana as they both agreed to drop the subject for now and followed her back into Megaton. Once they were there, the Spartan moved to the area where Moriarty's Saloon was along with Miranda, he was not going to go there himself for a number of reasons.

One, he never drinks anything alcoholic since it was not something that he did often so he had no idea how he would be if he got drunk. Second it was against UNSC rules and while there was no UNSC here in this 'Capital Wasteland' that was no excuse to go about breaking them. Third, he had no idea just what was the quality of the stuff as the alcohol was no doubt irradiated already and the last thing he wanted was getting drunk being irradiated which was wrong on many levels. And lastly he had no idea of the building could handle his weight, he was wearing a suit that when combined with his natural weight as well over a ton.

Miranda turned and spoke to him.

"You are coming?"

"No."

"Let me guess…you don't want a drink on the house?"

"No Miranda, drinking for me is prohibited."

Miranda sighed a bit and smiled slightly.

"You have any idea what you're missing? Okay never mind that, I take it that there is another reason why you're not coming?"

"Yes, I weigh a full ton in this armor so climbing up there is not a good idea. The last thing anyone wants is their building being crushed by someone weight more than at least a ton and a half"

The woman was surprised and after looking at the Spartan carefully realized that he might have a very valid point, she knew that the buildings in Megaton, including her home were rather sturdy, but they had never dealt with anything that heavy before and she had no doubt that her home could handle that kind of weight. She sighed a bit and nodded in agreement.

"Considering that, I can see why you would not go with me, all right, I'll see you later."

With that, Miranda decided to go back to the Saloon and see just how things were going, John decided to take his time and figure out what to do with himself while waiting for the lady to arrive, in the mean time he might as well get some things done and he decided that he should remove the Grenade Launcher attachment of his MA5C and switch to something more suited for Close Combat Urban fighting as they were soon going to go into the ruins of D.C and considering what he had seen and heard thus far, getting ready was key.

He moved away and then began to remove the attachment while getting his rucksack and then taking out the Underslung Shotgun attachment. As he was doing this, it was there that an elderly man walked up to him singing a tone of some sort. The man spotted the Spartan and spoke to him as he eyed the veritable arsenal that the Spartan lugged around.

"That's some very fancy looking weapons you got there with you son."

John looked at the man and replied.

"Yes, saved me from a lot of trouble, Mr.?"

"Nathaniel Vargas, but you can just call me Nathan, you planning to work with the Enclave? I can bet the good old US of A can really use someone of your caliber."

John raised an eyebrow at that and so did Cortana, they had never heard of this Enclave before and from the sound of it, they could be remnants of the US government. That would have pleased most people, but John was doubtful for two reasons. The first was obviously the fact that the US had taken part of a global war that was the result of all this, so there was no way to know if the US had instigated the conflict, and the second was that if they were still around, why was it that they had not begun restoration efforts to reclaim the land as best they could.

Cortana then spoke to him as she thought along those very same lines.

"This is interesting, if this Enclave is indeed the remains of the US government, why was it they have gone dark all this time? Maybe getting some details from this man can help us figure out why they have been keeping quiet for so long."

"Are you sure we can rely on him?"

"Not really, but he is the only one who does know about this Enclave so no sense not finding out what you can."

This whole conversation was between the A.I and the Spartan and it was over in moments so John spoke to the man named Nathan.

"What exactly is the Enclave?"

Nathan beamed at this and John could easily see that from the expression alone the man considered the topic of the Enclave as his favorite subject.

"They are the last of the nation of the old USA, and they are the ones who are going to help rebuild this great nation once again. Most people here think I'm crazy to be placing my hopes on them, but I know I am right and as soon as they came in, they are going to bring this nation back to the power it has before."

John took that in very carefully making sure to keep this in mind as Nathan spoke to him once more.

"By the way sonny, you really should heed my advice and join the Enclave, even if you are born in the Vault like that lady Miranda is, or where was it you came from, you are still born on American soil and that makes you an American. Anyway, I have to go, I need to get my guns ready to join them when the time comes, things are going to be different once the Enclave gets here, you can bet on that."

As Nathan left, John took in the information and decided to shelve that for another time as he finished locking in the attachment and loaded in the same shells that would be used by the M90A CAWS Shotgun. Once he was done, he was surprised to see Miranda come back with a wide smile on her face as she spoke to him.

"Lucas talked with Gob and he's pretty happy with being free of Moriarty and getting the chance to be able to own the Saloon, and Nova seems to be pretty happy with it to. She's quite being what she was before when Colin managed the place and she now helps out in the bar as well as the rooms, but not in the way she used to."

John had a fairly accurate idea on what that was since he had heard it already from Colin himself.

"I think the men here will not like it."

Miranda nodded at that but kept her face strong and replied.

"I know, but that's Nova's call and besides, the Sheriff does not mind, but before anything, I have to go and get someone else to help them manage the place now that Colin is gone."

"Let me guess…Silver?"

Miranda grinned.

The two left Megaton and John made sure to patrol the area around Silver's hideout to make sure that Colin or any other threat was not around to attack both Miranda and Colin's former employee in his saloon. Miranda was surprised to see Silver was alive and safe, apparently Silver had not revealed herself and she had even asked what the hell was that pig running like a Death-Claw pack was after him.

Miranda told Silver to come out and when John appeared, the former prostitute panicked and readied her weapon, no doubt mistaking the Spartan for a Super Mutant. It was with Miranda's intervention that Silver stopped and after explaining the Spartan's part in helping deal with Colin, Silver relaxed. She even thanked the Spartan for getting rid of the bastard pig. It was here that Miranda pitched the idea of her working with Nova and Gob to run the Saloon, she was not sure how to take it, but decided that it was better than living in fear all her life and as such, she agreed with the idea.

Both of them escorted Silver back to Megaton with John checking the area very carefully, and when they made it back into the town, Miranda talked to Lucas and after some time, he agreed with allowing Silver back. After which, Miranda asked the Chief if he had plans to get some sleep and the Spartan shook his head. This made Miranda worry about how the people would feel with having him around at the time of night.

John reassured her that he would be fine and that was it as she headed to her house to get some much needed sleep. John on the other hand had other ideas as he waited for night to fall and left Megaton, getting a good deal of distance and soon when he was sure that he was not being tracked by anyone, decided to head back to the Pioneer. He had a plan to give Miranda some better protection for herself. The Metal armor was useful and intimidating, but in his mind, antiquated and heavy.

Cortana could not agree more, but reminded the Spartan that they were going to have to make alterations if he intended to let Miranda use UNSC issued equipment and clothing. However she did support the idea and once John and her were back into the Pioneer after riding up via Pelican, they went to work.

…

The next day…

Miranda yawned and got out of bed, trying to get the stiffness out of her body after all the things she had been doing, she had not been able to get enough sleep and that was why after getting a good drink of Pure Water from Wadsworth, she went to sleep.

Once she was up and about, she got out some of the Brahmin Steak she had the day before, thankful the refrigerator in her house was in good working condition. She got out also some of the water she stored and got a Ice Cold Nuka-Cola as well. She downed her meal in her room and made her way to get dressed, unmindful of the fact that she was trooping around in her undergarments as she was the only LIVING person in her house.

She put on her Vault Suit, unwilling to part with it for now while leaving the belt and then putting on her Metal Armor, she then moved out and get to work in doing what Moira had asked of her. She bid her Robo-butler farewell and Wadsworth bid her goodbye while he kept the house tidy.

It was here that she spotted John and there before him was a crate of some sort, she was about to ask what was the crate for and he merely opened it. He took out some items and gave it to her, and there she saw that it was actually a suit of armor as well as armor pieces, and clothing as well.

Miranda looked at the Armor that the Spartan that she no doubt felt that he had brought down from that transport as well as where he had come from and wondered just what was it made of as she had never seen anything like it before in her life, it looked like Combat Armor, but it was not the same either.

It seemed to be a bit heavy, but not to the same level of weight as her Metal Armor. She also had to admit it actually looked a lot more interesting and looked tougher as well. It was also colored in grey with black straps as well. The Body Armor was not limited to the chest and back, but also some armored boots as well as shoulder armor pieces that could strapped on.

She couldn't help but wonder just where this guy was able to get this kind of gear, she knew that the Brotherhood were supposed to usually wear Power Armor since on occasion she would see some of them on her travels.

This was not Power Armor but it was well made and when she thought about it, it was a bit better than her usual Metal Armor and decided that since the man was giving this to her she might as well put it to use.

"All right then, give me a few minutes."

"Sure, wear the clothes too, this should help. Put the clothes on first then the full body suit, trust me, it's comfortable and it adds extra armor protection."

The Spartan took out the duffel bag filled with UNSC Marine fatigues that were used for more urban combat environments so unlike the woodland camouflage that the Marines were known to wear, this was more in the shade of grey which was more suited for combat in urban areas. The clothes were well made and very comfortable as well as functional and the black body suit he gave was actually a full body Ballistic Assault system, made from the same Kevlar/Diamond Weave but was lighter so it served as a secondary form of defense..

The woman took the bag as well as the Armor and the sections for the boots as well, it took a while for her to carry the gear to her house. He decided to check his gear once more while waiting for the return of the woman. The Spartan did not have to wait for long as Miranda appeared after a few minutes dressed in the fatigues and the Marine Body Armor with all the pieces that were part of the whole system. He could see that she was smiling somewhat which told him that she found the Armor to be right up her alley.

As soon as she was before him, he decided to speak to her and see how she was handling wearing the new Armor which in his opinion and Cortana's was a load better than the armor she was wearing at the time when they had met her.

"So how is it?"

Miranda smiled a bit and replied.

"It's pretty good, a load better than the Metal Armor since it's a lot lighter and more maneuverable than my previous armor was before. I thought that it was going to weigh a lot but it actually was not as heavy as I thought that it was when I put it on, not to mention that it seems to be pretty comfortable."

John nodded at that as he checked his MA5C and replied.

"So where do we go from here?"

"I think that I am going to check out the outer areas of D.C to find a way into the place via the Train tunnel network, once I am done, I am going to go back and getting to finish some of the other things that Moira wants done for that book and then I'll head out and find out what that guy Three Dog knows about my dad since before we ran him out and before we met, he did tell me that my dad was going to Galaxy News Radio."

John shook his head at this as he had a feeling that this was not going to be a very boring trip, but he decided to accompany her a bit more before striking out to find the Brotherhood, however he kept in mind that they might be a bit reluctant to let him and Cortana access their data and he was not going to be surprised as he was no doubt something that none of them expected.

Miranda then spoke to him.

"You want to tell me now why you were going to D.C? You've done a lot and I've done a lot together so if you don't mind, I would really like to know just what is it you are going to do here in the very first place."

John looked at her and replied.

"I plan to meet this Brotherhood along the way."

"You want to go to the Brotherhood of Steel? May I ask why since from what I heard, they have their hands full dealing with a number of things right now?"

John thought it over and while he was not fully trusting of Miranda just yet, he decided to tell her something on what he was going to do.

"I plan to find out information and find out what I can about what happened here. This war that was mentioned to me is something that I want to find out, what caused and why was it waged to the point that they used nuclear bombs. The whole thing seems a little too excessive to me as well as self destructive."

Miranda thought about it and she had to admit that the Spartan did have a point, she used to ask her father about why they lived in the Vault, and was the world outside really bad. She recalled how he would say that while the Vault was not perfect, it was a lot safer there than it was out here. At first she discounted that he said about the world privately, but after living here in the Wasteland for a few days and seeing the many dangers for herself, she could not blame her father for saying those things.

But still, she was quite curious herself on why the world was like this as well, she had scoured the data archives in the Vault and it spoke of the war between America and a place called China. But she had no idea why that even happened in the first place, she asked her father and even Amata, but none of them knew anything that could provide in her mind a more than adequate answer. The records they found from the terminals in Germantown only gave some idea of what happened during the events after the bombs hit the area of DC but nothing before it all.

"I see…that's going to be hard you know, there were records in the Vault back where I came from, but not that many, I can tell you that the Vault I lived in and others like it were part of some sort of program to save as many lives as possible in the event of war."

"How do you know that?"

Miranda told him that she had managed to get the password from the room of Amata's father and as soon as she was done, the Spartan took that into account as well along with what he had already learned of Vault Tec, he needed to see some more data before coming to a more solid idea, and the same could be said for Cortana as well. She needed access to a very reliable source of information before she could figure out just what was going on.

…

Miranda then moved out from Megaton and John followed her, she was the one who knew the surrounding areas better than he did since even though he had the exact map and layout of the DC area of Washington, this alternate version of the said location had already been bombed heavily so his map might not be very accurate. They moved out carefully while John kept his sensors on full alert for any possible hostile contacts as they moved to the direction of what she had told him was the sight of the Anchorage War Memorial from Moira and they were there to take a chance of placing some sort of observation device in what was supposed to be a place where Mirelurks were located.

He had no idea what Mirelurks were and neither did Cortana but he decided to get ready just in case things got rather nasty as they passed the area where Miranda had gotten the food and medicine from before. And sure enough it was as they were making their way past several houses as the Spartan's Motion Sensors detected hostile movement coming their way. He got his weapon ready and aimed it at the nearby road as well.

Miranda saw that and wondered just what was making the Spartan stop there in the middle of the road, but her own honed danger instincts kicked in as several men came out from out of nowhere and she was able to recognize them as members of Talon Company and they immediately began to open fire.

"TALON COMPANY!"

John however had an answer to that as he targeted the one with the Assault Rifle and fired a short burst from the MA5C. The rounds flew in and smashed hard into the man's face, the Spartan had loaded some Shredder rounds into the clip and those were the first to fire out from the Assault Rifle. The Talon Company Merc's head was instantly torn apart by the rounds and sent blood, flesh, bone, eyeballs, and brain matter all over the place.

Miranda was not far behind as she quickly got to cover near a ruined and already worthless car that had it's reactor burned, the rounds flew over her head as she got up and fired a burst of her own, some rounds were blocked by the Merc's Combat Armor but that had force him to stop shooting to get cover, she then fired several bursts into his arm, ripping into the limb and stopping the man cold from firing his Drum Shotgun. She followed up with a burst into the thigh where the armor did not cover the man and then finished off with one last burst into the head that dropped the man dead.

The last member of the Talon group primed a grenade but before he could ready it, the Spartan was already on the move and fired one single round into the grenade and that had more than explosive results as the weapon blew up. The blast tore apart the man and sent him flying, with his right arm flying away in one direction and his left leg flying in another direction as well. The body lay there and John moved over to see that the man was barely alive.

The Spartan looked at the talon symbol on the man's armor and saw him looking at him with shock, pain, and anger. The Spartan ignored it and placed his MA5C to the man's face and euthanized him with a shot in the face. Once the man was silenced, he decided to question Miranda on who these people were since they were clearly better equipped and armed than the regular band of Raiders. He turned to see Miranda checking the body of the one he had shot and salvaged the man's ammunition to add to her own as well as his Combat Knife which no doubt would useful if her own broke or cracked and that AK like weapon as well.

She turned and saw that the Spartan was looking at her expecting answers to what had just happened and she replied.

"They're mercenaries from a group called Talon Company…they are the worst kind of mercs since they would not give a fuck about shooting children and old men as long as they got paid."

"I can see that, why are they after you?"

"Remember when I got rid of that bomb in Megaton? Well it seemed that someone named Mr. Burke hired these mercenaries to track me down and deal with me. Apparently this guy wanted me dead for doing my first good deed since stepping out of the Vault and into the Capital Wasteland for another fellow named Mr. Tenpenny who happens to own a place known as Tenpenny Towers and is a man named Allistair Tenpenny."

John was about to ask just who this Mr. Burke was and why he and this Mr. Tenpenny would try to kill her for doing something that was a very commendable act when there was another amount of screaming heading their way and he quickly reacted and so did Miranda as they aimed their weapons at the source of the screaming.

…

The Spartan lowered his MA5C as he spotted the figure to be a young boy, wearing gloves, coveralls, and small shoes. But he could see dust and grime on the boy's face as well as the looks of utter terror on his face, and the way the boy ran was more than enough to tell him that he was utterly scared.

Miranda saw the very same thing as she lowered her weapon and she looked in shock and utter worry at the way the young boy was coming towards the of them. She had no idea what was going on but the way that the boy came towards them.

As soon as the boy stopped, he tripped and was about to fall flat on his face but was caught by the Spartan as he quickly moved to catch the young man. This action was easy for something like him but for Miranda she was surprised at the Spartan had cleared a full ten feet between him and the boy…and she didn't even notice.

(Whoa…that's like in some of those comic books Amata and I used to read back in the Vault, that guy can move and that is impressive.)

She shook her head however and joined the Spartan as she looked at the boy who was trying to catch his breath, her limited medical training told her that the boy was hyperventilating and needed to calm down quickly before he passed out.

"T-T-The monsters! They're going to get me!"

This made Miranda stop cold and thought for a minute that Super Mutants were after the child and she shuddered at the thought of a young boy being eaten by those monsters.

"Were the Super Mutants?"

"N-N-No! They were Ant…Big Ants, breathing fire! I need help! Papa told me…Papa told me to run!"

Cortana spoke first to him with an incredulous tone in her voice as she spoke to the Spartan.

"Giant Ants, we have seen already, but ones that can breathe fire? This kid must be suffering from shock or something."

John had to agree with that as he could see the looks of fear on the young boy's face. But after seeing the things that they had already seen here, he was not going to put that aside.

"Maybe, but considering what we've seen on this alternate Earth, it's not too far from the truth, remember what you said to me before?"

"Right, so what do we do now?"

Miranda provided the answer as she spoke with the boy."

"Calm down, what's your name?"

"B-Bryan…Bryan Wilks."

"Okay Bryan, you can trust me and my companion, my name is Miranda, and this is Spartan-117, we can help you, but you have to tell us what happened?"

Bryan looked at both Miranda and the Spartan and could see that they were a lot stronger than anyone he had ever seen before. he felt something flow into him. He had no idea what it was, but it felt good, but he knew that he little time to think of it now, he had to help his father and spoke to Miranda.

"It…It happened a few days…ago, the Giant Ants used…they used to just be in the tunnels in that old station. But then they…they came out, spewing fire all over the place…they burned anything they could find. I hid while my Papa fought them, and then… my Papa told me to run. Please you have to find my Papa, I need to know if he is all right!"

Miranda could not help but feel great pity for the young boy, this mirrored her own predicament though she was nearly an adult, and Bryan was too young to have to suffer the loss of a parent. She was not going to let this young man live in fear and uncertainty of his father's fate and have to live alone in a world filled with constant danger, he deserved better than that.

"All right, I'll help find your father."

Bryan then turned to the Spartan and spoke to John as well.

"W-Will you h-help find my Papa too?"

John looked at the young man and decided to agree, he had seen scenes like this more frequently than he liked during the UNSC Covenant War. Children asking fellow UNSCDF personnel to find their brothers, sisters, friends, mothers, fathers, the list went on and on. He knew that by all rights, those children were never going to see them again as those people usually were either killed, or tortured, or eaten by the more cannibalistic Unggoy, Jiralhanae, and the Kig-Yar, he had allowed it to roll over him not out of heartlessness, but because there was little that could be done, though he made it a point to exact revenge on the Covenant when given the chance while maintaining his self control and focus.

This world was not his, but he was not going to let a child grow up alone without his father, if the boy's father was still alive, then he would help find him.

"Yes I will, now do you know where to hide while we do this?"

Bryan nodded and replied.

"There's…an old shelter there in the town, I'll hide there…please…find my Papa."

As soon as it was over, Bryan told the two where to find Grayditch and with that done, the young boy took off and this left Miranda to get her Assault Rifle ready and John did the very same thing as he got his MA5C ready for battle. It looks like he and Cortana were going to have to deal with a brand new threat before them as they made their way to the town of Grayditch, all to help a young boy named Bryan Wilks find his father.

…

In Megaton…

Lucas walked into the Saloon and had to admit that it was a bit odd to be in the place once owned by his long time foe Colin and not have the man give him a lot of mouth for bringing himself there. The only difference here was that the man was gone and before him was Gob himself, and along with the Ghoul was none other than Silver and Nova, the two former prostitutes decided to stay and work in the Saloon, though in a different field.

Both of them were now the ones serving the drinks as well as managing the rooms in the hotel and that was it, they had no intention of going back to the life they left behind and they also made sure to make that clear to all the men there. They would share drinks and talk to help them, but being paid for sex was no longer what they wanted.

Lucas had no problems with that and decided to let the situation be, at least the jobs the two had were legitimate jobs this time around.

Nova smiled a bit and replied.

"Hey there Sheriff, I never thought I'd see you here."

"Yeah, well, I just needed to see just how Gob was doing."

Nova smiled a bit and replied.

"You can ask him, Hey Gob!"

The Ghoul came out from the room that was once owned by Colin and spoke as soon as he was at the bar.

"Yeah Nova, what is? Hey Sheriff, didn't you to be here."

"Yeah well, I needed to see how you were doing."

The former Ghoul bartender smiled and replied.

"Doing pretty good right now, still getting used to not having Moriarty belting me in the chops for this and that. But it's great, Nova and Silver are all right company and running the place is a lot better now with them around to help out."

Lucas nodded, having both Silver and Nova there was a good thing, he had to deal with the fact that some of the men got funny ideas about having Silver back, but he put a stop to that as Silver was asked to come back by Miranda after Colin was sent away. Silver was not quite happy being back, but realizing that she was going to be given a new lease on life, she agreed.

Silver then showed up and smiled in greeting as she spoke.

"Hey, nice to see you here Sheriff, came to check up on Gob right?"

Lucas nodded and decided to listen to the radio.

It was here that they got a report from Galaxy News Radio.

'Helloooo Capital Wasteland, the is Three Dog….Aaaaaooooh Coming to loud and proud from Galaxy News Radio.'

'Have we got some news for you today. so far the town of Grayditch has been quiet for a very long time. I have mentioned that someone should go there and find out what's what and see what drove the town to go quiet. Well, it seems that there are people going to check it out. I got word from a few scouts of the Brotherhood who had come back to the Citadel of theirs after being out on patrol that they had spotted none than…drum roll please…'

'Miss Vault 101 and her massive green and black armored friend with the killer arsenal on him to go and kick the hell out of anything dumb enough to get in their way! I kid you not kiddies, they are there right now, and it looks like they have decided to go other than check out ol Gray ditch and find out just why the place went dark on us. They don't that sweet ride with them which is a shame, but Miss Vault 101 looks like she dumped the Metal getup for some very new Armor and duds, hope that it can protect her well.'

'Anyway, here's hoping that she and her massive friend will finally get to the bottom of what had happened to Grayditch. I just hope that it's not going to be something seriously freaky like the things I have heard about going on in Canterbury Commons with those costume wearing nuts, or those creepy reports I keep hearing about that Dunwich place.'

'The wasteland's got enough on it's plate already so good luck to you Miss Vault 101 and you as well Mr. Mystery. That's the news for today kiddies. Here's some music for you all to enjoy, and that song in question is from Bob Crosby reminding us that the one road we will all be walking together…and that road is the 'Way Back Home.'

Lucas looked at the radio and so did Silver, Nova, and Gob and he replied.

"Looks like our friends are at it again huh?"

Gob nodded and replied.

"Yep, I guess I will have to keep in touch and hope for the best."

Nova and Silver nodded as well as they hoped to hear good news about the two soon.

…

To be continued…

…

Author's notes:

There were go, at least a new chapter for the readers and I hope that for those eager for a new update for those eager for more. Miranda now has some UNSC gear to use and it will certainly be useful, now I would have gone for the ODST BDU, but that is expensive to maintain and now would not the best time for them to use it in the Wasteland. It will be seen later and while the Marine Body Armor is not as advanced as the ODST Body Armor, it is a good system and with the Ballistic Assault Body Suit, it should be more than enough for the time being.

As to when she will get her hands on some UNSC weapons, that is up to me and it will show up soon enough when I deem that the time is right for it to be shown so don't worry about it.

…

Normally killing Colin would have been better, but technically he is not evil in the definition of the word. So I had to come up with a less brutal yet effective way to force him out of Megaton. But don't expect me to do the same to Jericho as despite him being evil, I feel that it would be better for him to be in Megaton since he does help defend the place from attackers.

You can bet however that Colin will want some payback and that means that he will show up and sooner or later, he will get a bullet in the guts so don't expect him to be out of the picture yet.

…

As for the soon to come meeting with the Master Chief and the Brotherhood, it will be interesting to say the very least so wait for that and I hope that it will not be disappointing to you readers since I dislike disappointing too many people when it comes to this line of work of mine. It's not going to happen just yet so don't expect John to meet them early

As you can bet we will have the trip to Grayditch to deal with the Fire Ants and you can bet that Cortana will take GREAT offense to the way that a certain Doctor Lesko handled this mess, and it is also here that Cortana will finally reveal herself in the flesh…so to speak to Miranda, this should be an interesting surprise for everyone involved.

And sooner or later, there will be the encounter with the Super Mutant Behemoth and yes there will be the part that everyone loves to see the giant green-skin mutant get blasted in the face with the Spartan Laser, but don't expect Miranda to be on the sidelines as she is going to show her stuff soon enough when she gets her hands on the Fat-Man nearby and the Mini-nukes as well.

And of course, this will bring John in contact with Sarah Lyons and you can bet that seeing the Spartan in action is going to raise some eyebrows with the Lyons' Pride when they see him fight. This should make things a load interesting for the wasteland once John and Cortana start helping out a lot more.

…

It's been brought to my attention that some people want me to touch in the Fallout Power Armor, that of the Brotherhood and that of the Enclave when I get the chance. I have used Power Armor before in my days playing Fallout 2 and Fallout 3 as well as Fallout Tactics. And I have to say that while it's not ad advanced as John's MJOLNIR, it does have a good deal of power to it and due to the fact that you only need specialized training to use it instead of the augmentations needed to use the MJOLNIR, it can be a useful tool.

Of course, John and Cortana will find ways to improve it and make the Power Armor a lot more effective. Considering the UNSC's records in manufacturing and construction, these repairs and upgrades will be a step above what the Brotherhood will expect.

Some of the ideas I have will be an introduction of advanced communications and sensors to make them more able to coordinate and communicate with one another, I also plan to have the heavy armor plating replaced with ceramics from both the ODST BUD and the Marine BDU to cut down on the weight and make the Power Armor slimmer and easier to move around with, and I might even introduce a portable Stealth Module so they would not have to use Stealth Boys all that much.

These should help improve the Power Armor some and introducing the Marine BDUs and ODST BDUs to the Initiates should give them a better chance to live longer. And who knows, the new uniforms and the new Power Armor may become the new trademark uniforms of the Brotherhood which can really separate them from the main Brotherhood as well as the Outcasts.

…

For those interested in the idea of Sarah and Miranda in a relationship with the Master Chief, which I might lean to at some point, don't expect Sarah to just fall for the guy. Keep in mind that she has been trained to fight since she was young as per the needs of the Brotherhood for those with the aptitude for combat, and she's not yet in the mood to get hitched.

Of course, that might change soon enough at some point so you can bet that Sarah and Miranda will each have their turns.

This will mean that John will have time to work with the Lyons' Pride when he and Miranda have to work separately at some point in the story since John will have to prove himself to be trust worthy sort of person to get access to the data that the Brotherhood have on hand concerning that had happened to this Earth that they had happened to land in.

…

See you all later in the next chapter as the Chief, Cortana, and Miranda now go and do a little Ant Hunting!


	4. Message

Well, it's official…

At Wednesday this week, I am officially leaving my old home and going dark. I have just gotten word from my folks that we will be leaving this home of ours. That means that I will no longer be able to work on my stories for a long time and not be here on this website.

I wish I had more time, but you can't change everything the way you wanted.

I'll see you guys around and I hope to keep in touch when the time comes.


	5. Chapter 5

Fallout: Hope from Beyond the Stars

Disclaimer: Fallout is not mine, and the same can be said for Halo

Chapter 3

Ant Hunting…

( ): Thoughts

…

As they made their way towards the place where Bryan ad gone, the Spartan was already sensing a great deal of movement in the walled off area that no doubt was Grayditch of all places. The Master Chief went ahead to make sure that they were not going to suddenly be caught off guard by these supposed fire breathers. They made their way into the town and already the two could see pillars of smoke in several areas of the town. It was here that they began to explore the place to spot the ants that apparently had torn this place apart.

They moved in quickly but then spotted a band of the ants moving around, at least three to four at best. There were at least three large ones and one smaller one. They were wondering just what the ants were doing when they spotted a Rad-scorpion move into the area, apparently trying to find food. The four ants wasted no time and moved to engage the much larger insect. Normally even four Giant Ants would not stand well to a Rad Scorpion, but that was only applicable to the regular ones as the group suddenly saw all four ants unleash streams of actual fire on the larger and more aggressive scorpion.

Cortana looked at the images of the Giant Ants actually breathing fire of all things!

She could not help look at the images with utter surprise in her face and she could sense that even John and Miranda were caught off guard when the creatures actually attacked the Rad-scorpion that wandered into the ruins of Grayditch. The usual run and bite was nothing new, but the blasting with fire was certainly an eye opener. It was not long before the single Rad-scorpion was finally taken out by the ants though the smaller one was slain by the Rad-scorpion and they began to eat it while the carcass of said scorpion was still cooking away and smoking to boot.

Miranda was the very first to speak.

"That is nuts."

Cortana spoke to John as she had scanned the ants and gave her report.

"There's not denying it John, those ants definitely breath fire."

"How is that possible?"

"I won't know until I have made a more thorough analysis John, and that means you gutting one and getting me a chance to look at the insides. What I can say is that despite all of the things I have seen thus far, there's no way that all of that was natural."

The Spartan agreed as he and Miranda moved about, however, the two were soon being followed by the ants that spotted them. John fired a burst of bullets into the very first ant trying to get the one up on them while Miranda turned and fired several bursts into the other. Both Ants were dead with smoking holes riddled into them, but two more and much larger ones at that came at them.

The Spartan fired another burst and quickly fired the Underslung Shotgun attachment to shred the Fire breathing ant's body before it could recover. Miranda was able to quickly reload a clip into her rifle as she fired a few more bursts at the ant that was coming right for her and then reached for a grenade that she primed for a few seconds and tossed at the insect, sending the creature flying with it's legs on the right side flying in different directions.

As soon as the battle was over, John moved to the one that was the most intact and took out his Combat Knife. Without any hesitation, he gutted the ant's head, much to Miranda's surprise and slight disgust.

"What the hell are you doing? The thing's dead isn't it?"

"Trying to find out how such a thing is able to breathe fire."

Sure enough he spotted two unknown organs that were not natural looking despite the fact that they were organic. Cortana noticed that too and guided John to look into the sacs, the liquids that came out were studied by the A.I and she quickly realized that when the liquids were released at high pressure and exposed to oxygen, they turned into a natural form of fuel and were also ignited that the same time.

"That must explain why these things can breath fire. This is similar to some of the defensive mechanisms used by some animals that can spit chemicals and poisons at potential prey or enemies. Ants do use venom in their bites and stingers on the thorax, but I never heard of them being armed with this before."

John nodded as he also found such adaptations to be totally unlike those found in regular ants, this was definitely something that had to do with genetic manipulation or mutation. Miranda looked at the gutted head and was not happy with what was going on and asked once more what exactly was it the Spartan hoped to find in the now ruined ant's head.

John explained what he and Cortana had seen and examined in the head of the creature and after seeing it herself, Miranda could not help but see that the man was correct. However they had little time as they decided to scan through the town and eliminate as many of the creatures as they could manage. It was not long before they found a large number of the ants moving in the town and they spotted some sort of hierarchy in them like regular ants.

The smaller ones appeared to be workers and could substitute as cannon fodder in situations, while the bigger soldiers and warriors would move in and attack hard. They sometimes would even go ahead and allow the weaker but faster workers to catch their prey off guard. This was enough to tell the two that despite being few in number, they were far from stupid.

However, the pair were better armed and armored, though the Spartan ruled the armor category in spades as it were as they took on the ants. John quickly loaded his MA5C while Miranda reloaded her Assault Rifle. Once they were done with a few of the ants in one area of Grayditch, they moved on to the rest. It was nearing a parking lot and what appeared to be a ruined diner that they spotted some houses and after clearing out the area of any ants that were moving about. The two began to look into the houses, namely the one that was named the Brandice House, they checked it and found nothing until John and Cortana hacked into some sort of old world computer.

The systems in the machine were so archaic and simple to Cortana that she only took a moment to bypass the security protocol password and. access the files inside of it. It seemed that this family actually came from the other side of the US, but seemed to be part of some sort of organization that had a base in Navarro. The Spartan was curious on what this organization was and filed that away while Cortana downloaded a full copy of the file and stored it away for better study. Miranda herself looked at the computer and read the file in it, she wanted to know how the people of the town had faired and what she learned not the least bit nice.

As soon as they were done, the moved to the house that was the Wilks household due to the name being there. What they saw in there was not the least bit pleasant to them, inside there were some giant ants, which had severe wounds on them which were bullet wounds. They moved in as there were some flames there in the house, spotting two more ants that were already dead and gone…and one dead man.

"Oh no…"

Miranda checked the man to try and see if he was alive, but Cortana and John knew already that what she was trying to do was not going to be of much help. They scanned the man for thermal signatures and his ore body temperature was already too low for a person to live from. And the wounds on the man told them that he had died already from them.

The Spartan moved over to see severe bite marks, heavy third degree burns, and gaping wounds, showing that the man had died trying to fight his attackers off. No doubt he had done this to try and buy his son time to escape and live. The face was still intact and it was in the expression of pain and anger despite some charring due to the flames used by the ants.

Miranda looked away but not before closing the man's eyes as a gesture of respect as she looked about and saw the blood that was from the man. The Spartan looked at the man carefully and soon got up, spotting a small pile of ammunition and another Ak-47 style assault rifle nearby took it as well. It was in poor condition but it could be repaired and he gave it to Miranda to which she shook her head.

"No…I don't need it."

John decided to come back for it later as he had an idea that he would try at a much later date with that they were able to find here. He did however place the ammunition in her hands and she did not turn them down. He placed the Assault Rifle down and made sure to keep it in good condition for later recovery. They left the house to try and locate Bryan, they did not have too much trouble finding the young man as they located him hiding in some sort of tubular shelter. As soon as the door opened, the young man spoke to the two of them in utter worry.

"Come on…tell me already! Is my papa safe?"

John looked at Miranda who was trying her best to remain calm and nodded. She sighed and spoke to the young man while the Spartan turned around to make sure that there were no other ants that were possibly still alive and might try and sneak up on them while Miranda was talking to the young man.

Cortana was not in the best of moods after seeing all that has happened to the people of Grayditch. She wanted to know just how could something like this be allowed to happen and she was eager to find out just who was responsible for this and what was the reason they did it.

This was the same sentiment in John's mind, even more so when the two of them heard Bryan cry once more at the news that his father died and how he stopped as he was too tired to cry anymore. The sadness and despair in his voice brought back memories into the Spartan's mind when he had seen children in the various worlds break down and weep at the lose of their parents, brothers, and sisters.

"What happened here?"

"I don't know Cortana, but we will find out soon enough."

The A.I nodded and it was here that they heard Miranda ask about who else had lived in the town apart from Bryan and his father. They heard of the Brandice family and one Doctor Lesko. This was enough to get the attention of the two as the description that Bryan's later father gave; especially the 'egghead' reference was more than enough to tell them that the man was a scientist as all military personnel called scientists eggheads every now and then.

They paid attention to the information and when Bryan asked them to make sure that something like this does not happen to another family ever again, the two agreed to it. Since they found no trace of the Brandice family, they decided to locate Lesko instead, hearing that Bryan's father had helped build the man's hut, Miranda went back to find the man's key. It did not take long for her to find the said key and open the door. There they found plenty of indicators that the man was indeed a scientist and that meant that he might have had something do with the things that had happened to this town. It was what was in the mind of the Spartan and the A.I as Miranda found a recording that apparently had the man's voice and his password.

Miranda wasted no time and typed it all down and soon they were looking at the man's notes. It was here that John and Cortana's thoughts were confirmed in a way that made the two of them all the more angered. The man had attempted to genetically change the ants back to their original size, but apparently had NOT taken into account the need for proper testing and proper experimentation security.

"I cannot believe this….this guy wantonly does all this without even thinking about having PROPER safety gear!"

Cortana was irate and John was not the least bit pleased himself. The experimentations on him and the Spartans may have been brutal and painful to the core, but it was well planned and they were prepared for whatever might happen in the process. This guy had done it in conditions that were LESS than ideal.

It was here that they determined that the location of the ants were coming from Marigold Station and no doubt that the scientist was there as well. Therefore if they wanted answers on how the hell this all went down, they were going to find him there. Miranda herself was aware of the situation and she too wanted to get to the bottom of this.

They quickly packed up what they could and headed towards Marigold Station, and the fact that they had already killed a number of the ants that were wandering about meant that they were going to have an easier time getting to the place had they not. However, there was no doubt in the mind of the Spartan that there was going to be resistance in the tunnels so no sense not getting ready for anything that might rear it's ugly head in their direction.

…

As soon as they entered the train station, they were going to have to be careful as there were ants in the area and no doubt they were going to be less than happy with them around. The two of them were quick to fight but John decided to remove the M7S SMGs and handed one to the woman and extended the stocks. They moved around and fired the rounds into the hostile ants. The attacks were enough to keep the ants down and dead as the rounds from the UNSC built SMGs were more than enough to bypass their carapace and kill them quickly and effectively.

They were able to find a few other supplies and weapons in the station and also to their surprise, the body of one man who was armed with something that resembled an old fashioned laser pistol. The weapon looked like something that was found in one of those old sci-fi movies that were present in the old days in the eyes of the Spartan and the A.I. They decided to keep it for study later as they continued to move on.

Occasionally the Spartan would take out a spare clip for the M7S SMGs when Miranda's weapon ran out of rounds. He made sure to show the woman just how to use the weapons effectively as they continued to move through the tunnels. As soon as they were able to reach a nearby door after clearing out the last of the Ants that they could find, they moved to open the door. Once they did so however, they were now face to face with the outfit of a scientist.

Cortana glared through the image of what John was seeing as she spoke to the Spartan in private.

"So this is the scientist who I have no doubt must be responsible for this whole mess."

John nodded as the man spoke in a tone that was that of a scientist.

"You startled me, you really shouldn't go around doing things like that!"

Miranda was the one talking to the man while John examined him, definitely a scientist and carried himself as one very well. The only weapon he could see was the Pistol that he on his side and judging by the appearance, was not very well maintained. The Spartan also made sure to record all the details that he and Cortana were able to get while Miranda talked to the man.

Apparently the man had indeed been working on the ants on the genetic level, but was trying to reduce them in terms of size. That was no doubt in an attempt to have them return to being small ants. But somehow he had made an error in the genetic sequencing and turned the born subjects into Fire Ants.

It was when Miranda brokered the subject of Bryan that Lesko commented that he saw the young child as a nuisance and was disturbing his work. And while he knew that his tampering with the ants was the cause of all this, he replied that it was an acceptable outcome to ensure that new generations would not have to worry about the ants being a threat to them. Miranda asked why he would allow this sort of thing if he could have stopped it, and Lesko replied that it was something that he had to do and lives may have been lost, but it was for a good reason.

However THAT particular train of thought did not sit well with a certain A.I.

…

Cortana snarled a bit and appeared before the scientist and glared as her eyes turned red much to the man's surprise as well as Miranda's. The A.I however ignored the stares and spoke in a very angered tone to the man.

"You've got some nerve! That boy you so commonly refer to as an annoyance had to be told that he is possibly the last person alive in the place he used to call home! His father is dead because of those same Ants you so decided experiment on WITHOUT the proper safety procedures! What kind of crack pot idiot are you to not do this experiment without even considering the ramifications?"

Lesko was very much surprised by the sight of the A.I that looked so…human, but he tried to recover his wits and say something.

"If a few have to suffer, then it will be to save many generations to come!"

Cortana was irate and shouted.

"Maybe we should do the world a favor then and slaughter ALL of them! Including their Queen as well, that way they no longer become a threat."

THAT was enough to make Lesko look at the A.I in shock as he spoke.

"You wouldn't!"

"What makes you so sure that we won't? The longer that queen remains alive to produce more of those horrors, the more likely that what they did the Grayditch is going to be merely the beginning. They have to die here and now before the threat they now pose, a threat YOU intensified with you're careless arrogance and stupidity, becomes a REAL problem."

Lesko looked like he was about to 'piss lead and crap bricks' as one Marine would kindly put it and he replied.

"But months of effort to finally return them to normal size would be wasted!"

"And what's the guarantee the wasteland as that the next batch of 'subjects' you experiment with will not turn out of have even MORE dangerous abilities?"

"I…I have a special inhibitor pulse wave generator that will separate the ants from the queen and make them turn on each other. If I can use that, and inject the special mutagenic compound that I have with me, I can start again."

Cortana was not entirely convinced and replied.

"And just HOW are we going to be assured that what you are doing is actually going to work?"

"This will ensure that I can keep any future experiments contained and away from anyone who can be harmed. And this will allow me to reverse the effects I have made on the Ant Queen itself."

"Not good enough!"

"I can give you two mutagenic injections that can grant special abilities, one can give you increased strength and a higher tolerance to fire, the other can enhance eyesight and give the same fire tolerance. Please, these are the only things I can give, all of those months working here will be lost and everything that has gone into this will be for nothing."

Cortana glared even more and turned to John and Miranda, she saw John give a slight shake of his head in a different angle. This was enough to tell her that her Spartan protector wanted a word with her. She turned and allowed herself to be taken back into the MJOLNIR and spoke to her friend.

"I cannot believe this guy, do we really want to help him do this thing?"

"That might very well be Miranda's decision Cortana, she alone now has the ability on how to this mission is going to end, not us."

They did not have to wait for long as the former Vault resident decided that they were going to help the man with what he was planning to do this time around. Lesko explained that once they dealt with the Fire Ant Nest Guardians who protected the queen, he could get to work in reversing the things that he had done to them in the first place. If it will ensure that he was going to reverse what he had done, and keep other settlements from suffering the very same fate as Grayditch, then she would do it. It seemed to be enough to convince Lesko and he calmed down, that is until John decided that he was going to speak to the man.

"One more thing before we leave to do your dirty work, Lesko."

The man looked at the Spartan, unnerved by the cold and emotionless tone that came from the Spartan before him.

"If we find Fire Ants wandering about in the Wasteland even if it is only one of them, we are coming back here and putting down that Queen and you with it."

The man nodded mutely and the two moved out with their M7S SMGs still in hand as they headed in the direction of the nest where they could find their targets. Once they were near the door, Miranda turned and spoke to the Spartan and the way she spoke told him that she was not going to go anywhere until she got some answers.

…

And she did not disappoint him at all.

"All right…what the hell just happened there? Who was that…lady or whatever it was that CAME from your armor and then moved right back INTO your armor?"

That was where Cortana decided to speak to Miranda.

"My name is Cortana Miranda Cole, and I am an A.I."

Miranda's eyes widened at that as she spoke to the Spartan and the A.I.

"Wait a minute here, did you just say that you are an A.I? An ACTUAL A.I?"

"Yes?"

"How…when…how the heck is that possible? I mean…an A.I shaped like that?"

Cortana sighed and replied to that.

"Miranda, I am not a threat to you; in fact I am already helping you by being here. Look, I am sorry that I did not tell you sooner about me being in the Chief's Armor, but there was good reason for the secrecy. We'll tell you about ourselves at a better time."

"Just not now right?"

"Yes, and with good reason as well, for now, will you let us help you?"

Miranda looked at the two and recalled just how far she had managed to get with their help and the fact that they had indeed not done anything wrong to her or anyone she knew. And the two had helped her with the whole mess in Big Town so there was no way they were not bad. She thought over just how interested her father would have been at what she had just seen and heard. Such technology was very impressive in her mind and knowing that at least it was not being used to harm people who were innocent.

"All right…I still don't know what to make of all this, but since you both have helped be and did a lot of good already, I can't stay like this, I do need your help, but as soon as we can, I want answers from BOTH of you, you two owe me that at least."

John then spoke in his very own voice.

"Deal."

That was when Cortana herself also spoke using the speakers on the MJOLNIR.

"I agree"

Miranda gave a sigh of relief at that.

"So let's get going, we still have to deal with the nest guardians and we can finally leave this place and hopefully find someone willing to take good care of young Bryan, no way am I going to let him live in this hell-hole all by himself."

…

They moved through the door and after a few feet, they ran into the first of the Fire Ant Nest Guardians, and they were big. They were around the same size as the Warriors and the Soldiers, but seemed significantly stronger and the fact that the M7S rounds were having a harder time penetrating their hides proved that. John quickly switched to using his MA5C to finish ther creature off. Once the first was taken out, Miranda also switched to using her Assault Rifle while giving back the M7S that she had been using before back to the Spartan. They moved on and it was with John's motion trackers and Miranda's Pip-Boy that they were able to find the next pair. John quickly switched to using his Frag Grenades around a corner to take out the ant or at least wound it while Miranda quickly followed up with two grenades of her own.

The tight spacing allowed their tossed weapons to severely wound the second guardian as the Spartan quickly rushed in and smashed the butt of his Assault Rifle into the thing's head to kill it. Once that creature was down, the Spartan and his companion quickly decided to move on and deal with the remaining four. They had no doubt in their minds and neither did Cortana that the four other Guardians would have heard the ruckus and would go to see what was going on.

They did not have to wait for too long as the second Guardian was a fair distance away, the Master Chief fired first, hitting the ant hard in the legs, with his 7.62mm NATO rounds hitting the creature hard and wounding it. Miranda was not far behind as she fired her own Assault Rifle, however, her weapon jammed a bit at the last shell, forcing her to stop.

The Ant roared in pain and was about to unleash a blast of fire, the Spartan saw that and pushed Miranda away while rolling to the other side himself. He got up and fired another burst, then firing the Underslug Shotgun at the creature, forcing it back. This allowed the Spartan to move in and grab the head of the Ant, and literally rip it off the creature. That killed it quickly as Miranda looked on in amazement at what she had just been witness to.

She got up as the Spartan tossed the ant's severed head aside and spoke to her.

"Are you all right?"

"Y-Yeah…come on."

The Master Chief nodded as he got up his MA5C, reloaded it and the Underslung Shotgun before joining up with Miranda. They moved on and soon spotted the other two Guardians, the Master Chief then watched as Miranda decided to line the walls with the mines by wedging them in the cracks nearby. She also placed them on the ground with different distances as well. She quickly told him to move back so they could ambush the creatures and make it easier for the two of them to accomplish what was it they came here to do.

John did not argue as Cortana agreed that it was better than going too deep and be caught by the Guardians as well as the Queen who might be a lot stronger than her Guardians were. Miranda moved in and fired several bursts on the first guardian ant and the creature turned to go after her, being followed by the other one. The woman quickly fired several bursts before moving away as quickly as she could as the first fired a burst of fire right behind her. The two ants followed her as she finally moved through the tunnel that she had lined with mines. The end results were explosions that consumed the ants in shrapnel and explosives, thankfully the tunnel did not collapse or block up as she and John managed to finish off the two before they could react.

The Spartan and the Vault resident moved on and this time the cavern was much larger as they spotted what was the last Nest Guardian. The Spartan decided to finish it off quickly as he and Cortana had detected a massive signature nearby which they were able to guess was the Fire Ant Queen. The Spartan grabbed the Spartan Laser but not before firing a burst to get the creature's attention, that was enough as the creature turned to see him and Miranda and come towards him.

John was not bothered as he readied the Spartan Laser and powered it up for one shot to conserve it's power. The beam charged up quickly before the ant could attack them. Miranda gasped as a deep red beam, brighter than any laser she had seen fired from a Laser Rifle or Pistol roared out and not only burned the ant, but literally cook it in mere seconds. The last of the Guardians was now nothing more than charred remains in mere moments, making her comment the only way she knew how.

"Wow…"

She turned as the Spartan placed the weapon on his back with a slight clunk and she spoke to him.

"What was that?"

"Spartan Laser, heavy weapon system, stay here."

Miranda would have argued but decided not to, and the reason that the two were moving in was that Cortana had decided to get a look at the creature. They did so and spotted the massive creature that was the Fire Ant 'Queen' as it were. They saw that it was going to be a serious foe if they decided to fight it but they also spotted what appeared to be a Protectron and some sort of console. Cortana then suggested they got closer to access it.

Instead of telling Cortana not to even suggest it, John decided to take out several rocks and loaded it with some shiny metal. He then coated it with florescent dye and tossed it into the lair of the massive female. The creature roared a bit and turned it's attention away from the entrance and that allowed the Spartan to move into the massive cavern. Thankfully his stealth training was still just as sharp as the creature did not notice the two of them as they soon reached the console to find out just what data was in the console. Besides, this might help them figure out just what the scientist Lesko was doing to these ants and turned them into what they were now.

As soon as the two were able to get near the console while being able to remain hidden from the massive Queen Ant, they accessed it and Cortana quickly got all the data while leaving the console alone. They quickly moved away before the Queen got wise as Cortana spoke to John.

"That thing might be huge, but I doubt it could escape, all we have to do is use the Spartan Laser and kill it with a blast or two."

"I suppose that is true, so what exactly did you find out about the console?"

"The guy was using some sort of advanced retro-virus, looks like it has the ability to remove recessive traits and somehow 'wipe the slate clean'. It somehow has the ability to create evolutionary changes, but it has to be controlled or else…well, the results are kind of obvious John. It does have a name from what I was able to gather."

"That name being what Cortana?"

"Forced Evolutionary Virus or FEV…I have no idea what this is for, the data's pretty sketchy so I have no idea what it is used for. Wagering a guess though, it's no doubt some sort of enhancement agent, kind of like the augmentations you and the others had, but this looks really crude to me."

John was not liking the implications of this and for good reason as he had seen the results. Humans experimenting with genetics to enhance abilities or create new abilities for various purposes was nothing new to him as such things had happened and he was indeed part of such a project. But this FEV needed to be explored more by them to find out just what it could do to human tissues and blood. That might even help him and Cortana find more critical answers on what happened to this world that they were on.

…

Lesko did not have to wait for long as both Miranda and the Spartan finally showed up and he spoke to them.

"I detected some sudden disturbances in the hatchery chamber…what happened?"

Miranda glared and replied.

"We did what you asked, all five of the creatures are dead."

Lesko's eyes lit up but they quickly dimmed as the Spartan loomed over him and opened his left palm to allow Cortana to appear as she spoke in a dark tone to him.

"Don't forget what my Spartan said Doctor, just one Fire Ant loose in the Wasteland and causing all sorts of havoc, and my Spartan and I are coming back here to stomp down that Queen into a smear on the ground, and you with it."

"I understand that, now I believe that your companion needed something from me."

The two moved away as Miranda stepped forward to get the injection, she then replied that she needed more strength, that was enough to make Lesko pick the right injector. Once he had it with him, he readied Miranda and soon injected her with the serum. John and Cortana needed to know more about this FEV stuff since this was the basis of the man's experiment. It would have been easier to take out the serum, but that would alert Lesko, besides, the data they got from the console earlier would be key to figuring out what this FEV was on their own.

For now they needed to keep watch on Miranda and hope that she was going to be all right and not in danger from the injection she had just got.

Miranda shook a bit and kneeled down to the floor in pain at the injection that was given to her by Lesko and that was enough to anger the Spartan as he and Cortana turned to look at Lesko. They might not have said anything but the man could already sense that they were NOT taking what they were seeing before them very well.

"It's all right, she is getting used to the injection and it is getting used to her as well, just give her a moment."

Sure enough she stood up and shook her head and flexed her muscles a bit, Miranda could already sense that she was a lot stronger than she had been before and for once she was going to use it. She turned to John as he spoke to her.

"You all right Miranda?"

"Yeah…it took me a while to get used to the shot. But I'll be all right, I actually feel a lot stronger as well for some reason."

Cortana scanned her and decided to make sure that if they got a chance to treat Miranda when she would get injured, which looked likely, she would get a sample to see just what the injection had done to her, as well as any other mutations that she might have gained while being out here in the world.

Once everything was squared off, the two of them left the train-station and head back to Bryan and tell him that the creatures were not going to trouble him anymore. However, John spotted several hostile blips once they were out nearby. He signaled to Miranda to keep down and he quickly took his M7S and moved to find out what had triggered his motion scanners.

He did not have to wait long as he spotted a trio of Talon Company mercenaries, he quickly guessed that they were not here to help and decided to take them out quickly. One got a shot in the head that reduced his brain to soup along with leaving a hole in his head while the other got shot in the forehead the second he turned. The third was about to get a shot off but was quickly shot in the face by Miranda who had apparently followed the Spartan.

John turned to look at Miranda and she shrugged a bit and spoke to him.

"I decided to help. But don't think that I am not going to forget that you two owe me an explanation."

The Spartan replied to that.

"You'll know soon enough, the only question is, will you believe it?"

Miranda snorted a bit and replied in a slightly annoyed but non hostile tone.

"Considering everything I have seen in the Wasteland and what I have seen you do when I first met you, I think I can handle whatever you're going to tell me."

The Spartan shrugged at that and Cortana gently replied in a humorous tone.

"I guess we're going to have to get serious then John, anyway, we have a kid to talk to."

As soon as they were done scavenging what they could from the Mercenaries, including replacement parts for her Shotgun, they headed back to Bryan. The young man was in his father' home and had managed to actually bury his father by himself, much to the surprise and admiration from the three, even more so for the Spartan and Cortana. The young man was tough despite his youth and the fact that he was still willing to reside there after losing his father.

He was happy to know that the ants were no longer a danger to others, and had told the trio about how the other ants that they had missed, came back and suddenly began fighting each other. Miranda assured him that it was over. Bryan smiled briefly but then was sad as he told them that he wished he had met them earlier so they could have come in time. He then said that now he would have to be alone here, but Miranda was not buying it as she asked him if he had other relatives.

Bryan mentioned a woman named Vera Weatherly who ran a hotel on what was large ship that was now known as Rivet City. Miranda then made a promise to help find Bryan a new home and the young boy smiled happily at this and called Miranda a swell woman, and thanked the Spartan for helping him. John merely replied that he was doing his job.

Miranda decided to leave a good amount of her supplies of food to Bryan and told him to keep hidden until she could come back to help him go to his new home once they found his aunt. Bryan bid them farewell as the two decided to move on. As they left Grayditch, Miranda vowed silently to herself that she was going to find Bryan a new home and also get some answers on her mystery companion and the 'A.I' he had with him. She then decided to ask a few simple questions and hope that it would at least be a starting point for them.

"All right, now I need to know just where did that…'A.I' come from."

That was when Cortana spoke through the speakers.

"I do have a name Miranda, please use it."

Miranda sighed a bit and tried again, she didn't know why she was doing this as Cortana was by all rights a machine and not a real person. But she knew that in her studies that there was no A.I like her at all. And NO A.I had such a human like form as far as she had seen. Besides, she had acted as a human when she faced off with Lesko earlier.

"All right then, Cortana…where did you come from?"

"I came from…a secret lab on a place called Reach."

"Reach? Where is it on the map?"

"Oh it's a LONG way from here, that much I can say."

Miranda had a feeling that Cortana was hiding something from her, but decided to place that aside and asked yet another question. She knew that A.I did not just exist like that, someone had to have made Cortana, but whoever it was must be a genius.

"So who made you Cortana, you must at be able to at least tell me who made you right?"

Cortana then appeared in her smaller form on John's open palm while the Spartan stopped to allow the conversation between the two while he kept himself on sentry duty. Cortana smiled a bit and cocked her head to the side, at least as far as Miranda could figure and spoke to the still confused yet fully focused woman.

"I was created by Dr. Halsey, Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey."

Miranda was surprised and spoke out.

"Wait, you said your creator's first name was Catherine?"

"Yes, why do you ask?"

"M-My mother's name was Catherine, my father told me so when I was still rather young."

Cortana was surprised at that and replied.

"Well then, that must be a coincidence that my creator and your mother have the same name since my creator made no mention of having a daughter. Anything else you want to ask me?"

Miranda then shook her head and replied.

"No, I guess that will be enough for now, I need to do this last thing for Moira before I take a break and get back to finding my father. We should get going, the Library is not too far from here at least that's what Moira told me."

The two shrugged as Cortana went back into the MJOLNIR and recorded the information that she had just received for the time as they moved on to the next location. John managed to reload his weapons before they left Grayditch and was once more taking point while Miranda followed him. She was still intent on finding out more of her companions and she was not going to give up the desire to learn more.

But that can wait as she and the two moved on, soon they were going to be in sight of what she knew was the Citadel, the headquarters of the Brotherhood of Steel. She had never met them before, and no doubt that same could be said of her two companions so she hoped that nothing bad was going to happen. Though she had a feeling that once they got a look at her companions, there was going to be some questions there for them to answer, she was curious just how they were going to handle that.

As they got closer, they passed what appeared to be some sort of wharf while John's enhanced eyesight and the MJOLNIR's systems spotted what seemed to be some sort of monument that was not in his records. He and Cortana would look at those later as they came closer to the bridge…but they soon spotted that there were some more Raiders, or at least John and Cortana saw them.

Looks like they were going to have to do some cleaning first before going any further to the library and passing by the Citadel.

…

To be continued…

…

Author's Notes:

There we go, not too long and not too short, just about right in my book. At any rate, this should show that this story is still going to get a good deal of treatment to make sure that it grows in the way that I want it too and not turn into another direction that is going to give me a serious headache.

As you have no doubt read, the choice for the injection is the Ant Might injection for all you Fallout 3 players out there, I could have gone for the Ant Sight, but since I've placed some good stats on Miranda when I played a template character in my game which she is partially based on, I figured giving her a boost in sight, smell, hearing, taste, and all the associated aspect of Perception was not needed. So I focused on strength instead.

You guys can complain to me at a much later date all right? Until then this is what I am working with for a while until I can get a connection to the net but that will take a while.

Now as you can guess Cortana is not the least bit happy but abides John's decisions and this discovery of the FEV sample that Lesko willingly used is going to give her a much needed clue on figuring out just what the heck happened to the ants and eventually find out about how exactly were the Super Mutants made in the Capital Wasteland once they get back to the Dawn to do some work as well as restock and rearm themselves for another little excursion down the world once more.

Now we get closer to the meeting in the Citadel and you can bet that you are going to be in for the battles in the DC Ruins soon, but not before John, Cortana, and Miranda do a little book shopping and you can bet that the encounter with the Brotherhood of Steel in that place and near the Citadel is going to be an interest grabber for all involved.

Now I managed to patch this story into a USB for transport so I hope that you all don't mind if this story took a while to get to you and I hope that you all can forgive me for the delays that this has caused.

…

Now then, we can get down to the rest of the interesting bits from here on out and I hope that just because I cannot update as much as I want to, I have not lost my touch. If I have, you can bet that I sincerely apologize for being away for bloody long. I am trying to get some inspiration in me, but the injuries I got due to an accident make my legs ache and my left hand's wounds kind of hurt.

Relax, the injuries are not life threatening in any way, but they do hurt like the devil right now. And they really annoy the hell out of me every time I try to move my legs.

This should be the first of many that I will hope to store away in my USB. And when the time is right, I can send you all the files that I have to really show that I am still going to be around to give you all the chapters that I have been working on when I had my time off for the past few months.

…

I am not gone or fading away just yet my dear readers, I will do my best to recover and be back full time.


	6. Chapter 6

Fallout: Hope from Beyond the Stars

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Fallout or Halo, so if you're a lawyer asking for a quick buck, forget it.

Chapter 4

Brotherhood Supply run…

…

The Citadel…

Paladin Bael was busy manning his usual post on the gates of the Citadel and making sure to keep an eye on the situation and keeping the Citadel safe. Most people would have thought that the Paladin with the Mini-gun was wasting his time and no one would be dumb enough to attack the Capital Wasteland Brotherhood of Steel in their own base. He however knew things differently and saw the truth more than he cared to like.

The Brotherhood at this moment was undermanned, under supplied and underappreciated in his eyes. Sure they had plenty of technology in the Pentagon storage areas, ammunition, weapons, spare suits of Power Armor and whatnot, and medical supplies, but that was running a bit thin and as much as he disliked it, they were now relying more on trade from the outsiders who ran the caravans.

He was not against the trading as it was needed after all, but still, he was not happy with the fact that the traders at times had no set prices and they demanded whatever they wanted. He could have just told them to take their demands and shove it up their proverbial butt-puckers but Elder Lyons would not have it, the Brotherhood needed the supplies and they just had to deal with it. Still if there was some way for the traders to get organized, have a set of rules and have a much higher stock, then he would not have been so annoyed with them. But he can bet it was going to take either a miracle or someone with caps bursting from their pockets, a silver coated tongue, heavy business savvy, or all three to get those nomads to work together as a team.

Another concern was the Brotherhood being undermanned, sure they had the best technology around compared to most of the Wasteland dwellers but they were running low on original talent. Many of their first generation soldiers were either dead in battles with the Super Mutants or siding with the Outcasts. Bael was not one of them and was loyal to Lyons but that didn't mean that he was keen on the Wastelanders who they recruited to fill in the gaps. Most were either unskilled, too eager, or both to be trained properly, and with casualties mounting they were running through Initiates faster than they were able to get them. Already the rumors of their losses were spreading and it was harder getting new talent into the Brotherhood, it was like out of a hundred new Initiates, only about ten of them showed some level of promise, and even if they did find good talent, they ran out of those quickly.

And lastly they were underappreciated, they were fighting and dying day by day, using up supplies, spare parts, technology, weapons, and armor to protect these people. And all they got for it were request after request to send in more of their soldiers into the fray. As more of his fellow soldiers fell, there were complaints that they were not doing what they had set out to do. That was why he felt that the Wastelanders had no idea how hard it was for them as well, they only thought that just because they had the guns and power armor that they could defend everyone.

Bael mentally sighed and shook his head a bit.

"I am not going to get anything done acting like this, got to get back to the job at hand."

He looked about and heard the sporadic gunfire coming from the DC ruins ahead, the once proud city that held the Nation's Capital. There his fellow Brotherhood comrades were doing their best to contain the Super Mutants along with keeping the Raiders and Mercenaries from being pains in the ass. And it made him growl a bit more to himself, nothing would have pleased him more than the chance to go there and shove lead into all of their bodies to shut them up, but no, he was here to do a job.

That was when he heard gunfire coming from the bridge area, namely where a band of Raiders were known to have taken residence. The annoying pests made it a habit to attack anyone and anything they spotted, even those who were unarmed and not even a threat to them. The Brotherhood disliked these tactics a great deal but they had many concerns on their plate. Besides, the raiders served as a buffer to keep more of their own kind from coming in and they did serve to warn them of Super Mutants trying to come in for a fight.

But the fight before him was different, it was like the Raiders were being attacked by something different. Despite the distance between the Citadel and the bridge area in question, Bael could hear the Raiders swearing and shooting like mad, and that was strange. Even though they were savages and brutes, Raiders did not act this way all the time, something or someone must have really caught them with their pants down.

He turned to his fellow Paladin who was armed with a Chinese Assault Rifle and spoke to him.

"Knight Trevor, go over there and check out just what's gotten into those Raiders, I'll cover you from here."

The Paladin looked at Bael and nodded as he moved out to the area, though the Power Armor was hardly the kind of thing worn by stealth operations, the Paladins did learn how to move quietly despite the rather large and clunky armor. Trevor moved ahead and was trying to move and use the whole battle that was going on as a source of cover for him to get closer. Bael was not too far behind, ready to rain bullets over his fellow Paladin's head to cover his approach.

…

Trevor was a bit nervous at this, but he knew that they had to check it out as the firefight seemed to come closer to an end. He then spotted one Raider, a male run like the devil himself was after him, and the screaming coming from the man confirmed it as well. Trevor had little love for Raiders, but even he was surprised at how terrified the man was. He however quickly ducked when he heard the roar of a gun that sounded powerful and managed to turn to see the Raider sporting three holes on his back. The man dropped dead and that was enough for Trevor to get up and aim his weapon into the darkened area.

"Come out and show yourself!"

The Knight was nervous and his finger was on the trigger but he managed to keep his discipline in him as he tried to see what was going on. He did not have to wait too long however as he spotted two figures begin to move out of the darkness. One was human sized and judging from the fire was female and no doubt wearing armor of some sort…the other figure however was massive and for a moment he thought it was a Super Mutant.

But he stopped himself and recalled that if it was indeed a Super Mutant, then why was it with the woman. Super Mutants were violent, and brutal savages who loved nothing more than to inflict pain and more than once he heard of his fellow brothers and sisters being treated like canned meals by them. So the idea of one not being hostile was near ludicrous with the possible exception of one Super Mutant wanderer named Uncle Leo. Besides…there was something about this figure that was different.

Trevor was surprised to see the first figure as it was indeed a woman though wearing armor that had absolutely no relation to what he knew. He had heard of Combat Armor and knew that a fairly large number of factions the DC area used them, but this armor was different. It had a look of a full military armor system that would be used be front line troops and soldiers who were more on a balance of protection with speed. She appeared not to be worried about the armor that she had on and was carrying some weapons on her.

But it was the other one that was with the woman that completely got Trevor's attention. The figure looked human but wore armor that was unlike anything he had ever seen. It could be Power Armor, but it was unlike anything that he had ever seen before, he had been in the briefings and knew the Power Armor that was in the use of the Brotherhood and this black and green armor was not in the records. He looked to see the man were a helmet that had a golden visor that seemed to be totally opaque and hid the face of the man behind the armor. But was it even a man to begin with? And the weapons he had on him were unlike anything that he had seen before, nothing in the Brotherhood's armory and the supplies they either salvaged from their enemies or from trade they made with outside traders.

The Paladin then spoke seriously to the two before him.

"State your business!"

Miranda then spoke as she knew that she had to do the best she could before something bad happened before her. Even though she was not a full fledged expert like her father was, she could tell that the guy was nervous, or very wary and she could not blame him either.

"Whoa, easy, we're not the enemy here."

Trevor looked at the woman and the armored giant of a man who was with her and decided to lower his weapon a bit as he replied.

"That might be true, but that does not change the fact that you two still have to state why you're coming around here."

Miranda was the one who spoke first.

"All right, my name is Miranda Cole, and I am on my way to the Arlington Library to get some data from the archives."

John decided to reply.

"I was accompanying Miranda to the Library, but my real reason for being here is that I am looking for the Brotherhood of Steel."

"Well, you found them, so what do you want?"

"I'm not here as an enemy, I need to gain access to your archives due to some important matters that I cannot complete without accessing more information, and your organization has it."

That was when Bael came and already he could see the two figures, one was a woman and while he had no idea who she was, he could see from the gear that she had with her that she was no slouch. The other massive one however was a mystery as he had never seen armor like that before and the same could be said for the weapons that he had with him as well. He placed those thoughts aside for the time being and got over to join Trevor and then spoke in his usual manner.

"What is going on here?"

"Sir, these are the two who apparently attacked the Raiders earlier."

Bael looked at them once more and decided to speak to see what he could learn from the two, he directed his attention to the woman first as she might have the answers that were needed. He was going to save his questions to the man for a later date if the person was a man.

"All right ma'am, care to explain why you are passing near the Citadel?"

Miranda sighed and repeated what she said to the Paladin with the Mini-gun while the Spartan was looking at the two and studying the Power Armor that they had on. The riveted steel plate and servo-motors that he saw on the Armor looked more exposed and could be seen as a weakness to this Armor. Cortana was not silent either as she was also scanning the armor to see just what it was made of as well as how it worked. And naturally she was able to speak to her long time protector and give him some of the information that she was able to gleam concerning the Armor itself that was being worn by the two soldiers.

"It looks like a primitive version of Power Armor and from what I can scan, is made from steel alloy plating and would give a good level of protection. But the exposed servos and wiring make it rather vulnerable. It seems to be a lot heavier as well so it might be hard to move in and I seem to detect a good deal of wear and tear in the Armor there, along with battle damage. That means that these suits must have been rather old and had only make shift repairs and retrofits, not full scale repairs."

"Hard to believe that it is Power Armor to begin with Cortana, it does not look like much at least compared to MJOLNIR."

"That might be true, but the fact that there is working Power Armor in this reality is impressive, I can wager a bet they must have been started well before the war that supposedly plunged this Earth into what it is when we showed up. That must mean that the US here must have been going on with Power Armor research and the UNSC Navy and the Marine Corps started the MJOLNIR series in the last 24th century. That in itself if a very interesting feat in more ways than one, makes me wonder just what it had taken to even develop a working prototype."

John smiled a bit at that and knew that new data to a Smart A.I was like coffee to a caffeine addict. And he had to admit that Cortana was right, even if the suits before him were not at the same level as his own, the fact that they existed was interesting.

That was placed aside as Bael then directed his attention the Spartan and asked him the same question.

Bael looked at the Spartan from head to foot without making it obvious and determined that this unknown being was very new to anyone in the Brotherhood, but that hardly meant that he was going to go soft on him either.

"So what's your reason to be seeking out the Brotherhood?"

John replied quickly and clearly to that.

"I came here to get access to the archives in order to ascertain what exactly happened here to the Washington area."

That made Bael even more curious, everyone who lived here already knew about the war two centuries ago, and while the Brotherhood itself was not very sure due to it's long history the cause of the war, they knew that it was unchangeable. This one acted as if he had only found out about it recently which in itself was odd, either this guy had his memories altered, or there was more to him that meets the eye. That was certainly worth a look for the Elder and Head Scribe and that was enough for Bael to make the decision to call in the Gatehouse and let this guy in.

"All right then, you can come into the Citadel but keep in mind that we'll be watching you, any wrong move and we will retaliate, understand?"

"Loud and clear sir."

"Before I do decide to call it in, I need your name."

"Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan-117."

That confused Bael and Trevor, but the former had a feeling that while the name was odd, there was a tone and feel about it. It was not a hostile feel just yet, but he could feel that this guy or it was human would be a real interesting case. The rank was unknown to him and he decided to let Elder Lyons and the Head Scribe figure it out for now.

"All right then, follow me, but you're friend is not going to get in, she's still a civilian and only under special circumstances is she going to get in here. So until that happens, she cannot be in the Citadel."

…

Miranda thought it over and decided that she might as well get her own things done and then head over to Galaxy News Radio and find out what Three Dog wanted. She had hoped to stay with the Spartan for a while longer but seeing that he had gotten what he cam e to do, the best that she could hope for was the meet the Spartan again and then they could work together, and answer more of her questions concerning just who was and where he came from, along with who Cortana was and who made her and where as well. With that in mind she spoke to the Spartan and the A.I who she had no doubt was aware of what she was about to say.

"All right, I'll go on ahead with what I have to do, I hope that we'll meet again soon."

"We'll see."

Miranda nodded and with that, took off in the direction of the Arlington Library to do what Moira had asked of her. This then left the Spartan alone with the two Brotherhood Paladins with Bael then speaking in his usual fashion.

"All right then, let's get moving and hope that the Elder is willing to hear you out, be at your best behavior Spartan, you're in the Brotherhood of Steel's area now."

John merely nodded and he was soon escorted by both Trevor and Bael as they made their way to the Citadel. It was a short walk and he was happy that the bridge he was walking on was not weak in any respect despite the overtly rusted and dilapidated look that it had on it. Once they reached the massive gate, John turned to look at the robot and recorded it's weapons, systems, and functions for Cortana to work with and analyze on the off chance they encountered hostile versions of them.

Bael then spoke to the intercom.

"This is Paladin Bael, requesting to bring in someone from the Wasteland into the Citadel to see Elder Lyons."

That was when another voice came over the speakers.

"All right, permission is pending, though I have to ask why you'd let a Wastelander in here Bael. That's not like you to just let one random Wastelander walk in here."

"This one is not you're regular Wastelander."

There was a moment of silence and then the voice replied.

"All right then, Elder Lyons is on his way to meet you, we're opening the gate now."

And just as the voice said, the massive crane that held the large steel wall moved and began to lift away the steel wall that served as the gate. John watched the whole situation and knew quickly that if that gate was disabled it would seal the Brotherhood in and while they could have some ways out via underground passageways or hidden tunnels, they would be in a difficult spot. He also could see that while the masonry was good and the walls were indeed very thick, the Citadel as it was called was still going to need some serious reinforcing to handle a serious assault.

All of that was placed aside as the gate was now open and he was escorted by Bael while Trevor remained outside along with the robot that was around to provide fire support.

…

In the Citadel…

As the Spartan moved into the building that served as the apparent base of the Brotherhood of Steel, he studied the fortifications and determined that while age and damage had ruined the building, it still had the structural integrity and it would explain why it was the base of the organization who could provide him with the answers that he needed to make sense of the war that totally ruined the US and possibly the world at large.

Once they went through the doors, the Spartan found himself in what was the courtyard of the structure, but it seemed that the place was transformed into something else entirely. The changes appeared to be shooting ranges and some sort of training pit for CQC skills. He spotted men and women who were doing the training and there was one man moving about in Power Armor giving orders.

John quickly guessed that this must be the training yards of the Brotherhood. The shooting ranges as well as the training pit already indicated that and the fact that the soldiers in question were not wearing the Power Armor meaning that they were still what one could guess as recruits. He looked upward and spotted sentries in Power Armor and carrying Assault Rifles as well as Sniper Rifles, and heavy weapons such as Mini-guns and Rocket Launchers, this meant that the Pentagon in this reality must have also served as a weapons, armor, and munitions depot apart from being the central command hub of the US Military during the war that had taken over the world that he and Cortana were in.

As he followed Bael deeper into the Citadel, it was not long before his arrival was noted by the people in the Citadel. There were guards in Power Armor in several door areas and while they were not looking at him directly, John had a feeling that they were indeed watching him. It was not long before the wandering man in Power Armor spotted them and apparently decided to speak to the Spartan, but not before shouting out orders to the Initiates that he had been dealing with before.

"You keep that up until I tell you to stop, do you understand that maggots?"

"Yes sir!"

With that out of the way, the man walked over to Bael and the Master Chief and when he was there before the two, he spoke to Bael.

"Care to explain to me who this guy is Bael?"

"He has a name and rank, Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan-117."

The Paladin looked at the Spartan with a raised eyebrow and then spoke to Bael once more.

"What's the matter, he cannot speak for himself Bael?"

Bael smirked a bit and replied.

"He's not exactly the sociable type Gunny."

The Paladin snorted a bit and began to examine the MJOLNIR itself and the weapons that was in the Spartan's hands as well. He raised an eyebrow at the technology that he could see and then spoke to the man.

"This Power Armor of yours is certainly different, I don't recognize the design at all. Is this an Enclave design? No…can't be, those guys might make Power Armor, but the records had no mention of any Power Armor that look like this. What sort of Power Armor is this by the way?"

John recorded that and so did Cortana, but they were also curious about what the man had mentioned, namely the Enclave. Apparently it seemed that the Brotherhood had encountered the Enclave before and from the sound of it, the meeting was less than friendly. This was something that they felt could be of use so they decided to find out about it later. The Master Chief debated whether to speak to the man about the Armor he wore as he was still under UNSC oath not to speak of the MJOLNIR's systems to anyone who was not cleared. However, he tempered it with the knowledge that since this was a different reality, there was no one who knew the history of the MJOLNIR and Cortana seemed to agree with him. She spoke to him at this point to make sure that they were in agreement to give only the simple information and not the more important details.

"MJOLNIR Mark 6 made by the UNSC."

Gunny then replied as he looked at the MJOLNIR and replied.

"UNSC huh? Never heard of them before, but I have to admit that these guys are good if they were able to make something like this. They made the guns you use as well?"

John nodded and that was enough for Gunny to get an idea into his mind.

"You mind if I get to see your gear in action?"

Bael then replied as he knew that Elder Lyons would no doubt be on his way, and the very second that he was able to see the man in question arrive from B-Ring, he knew that Gunny's plans were going to have to wait.

"That will have to wait Gunny, he has to meet with the Elder right now."

Gunny nodded at that as he also spotted the Elder out of the corner of his eye, plus he was still needed in training the Initiates who were still in training. He wished that they had more time and resources to make these Initiates to the kind of soldiers that the Brotherhood needed, but with the increasing number of casualties that they had, he would have to make due. The only good news to him as that they only had to deal with Super Mutants, Raiders, and other threats in the Wasteland, these guys might be numerous, but they were not too organized with the exception of Talon Company, but even these mercs would not attack Brotherhood forces unless they were paid for it.

If they were facing a more organized and armed foe…then everything was soon going to fly out the window, and that was something that he knew that they would need to be prepared for the worst.

Gunny then left and Bael himself went back to his position of guarding the gate of the Citadel that was going to be closed now that his request was fulfilled. This left the Spartan and his A.I companion alone to face the apparent leader of the Brotherhood of Steel. John looked at the man in question and already he could see that despite his age, this man was someone who would easily be considered a leader in every respect. He wore an elaborate blue robe that despite it's odd appearance the robe was made in a way that told both John and Cortana that he was indeed a high ranking officer in the Brotherhood despite the fact that John was more used to seeing his officers in what he termed as more traditional looking uniforms. The man carried a pistol nearby and judging by the looks of the weapon itself, the weapon had seen plenty of use and the way the man walked also spoke volumes. He carried himself well yet also had his attention not just on him but on his surroundings as well. That was enough to show that despite his age, this man knew how to fight and no doubt had been a crack soldier in his younger days.

Cortana was thinking the very same thing and spoke to her long time companion and protector.

"This man certainly carries himself as a leader, so I guess we should address him as such."

"Right."

…

Elder Lyons had to admit that the massive seven foot tall man in armor matched nothing he had seen or heard of in his youth, but that hardly meant that he was completely intimidated by the man either. He then recalled something he had heard about in the radio earlier and then was quick to recognize the Spartan as soon as he was in front of the man while Sarah was with him.

"So…you are the one that Three Dog spoke of in the radio. I never thought that you would be here yourself. I have heard about what you and your companion from the Vault have done for the people in Big Town and I am pleased to hear that. But despite that glowing report from Three Dog, may I ask what brings someone like you here in the Citadel?"

John looked at the man as well and he could tell that the way he carried himself, told the Spartan that despite his apparent age, this man was a soldier. No doubt a high ranking one among the Brotherhood considering the way the others were acting around him. The woman next to him wore the same Power Armor as just about everyone else, but he was quick to note that her armor's symbol was different from the others. She had blonde hair and blue eyes and was by most civilian and military definitions an attractive woman, but he could tell that she was battle hardened and carried herself like a consummate professional, someone worthy of respect or to be watched, depending on whether they were allies or hostiles.

"Are you Elder Lyons sir?"

"That I am, and you are?"

"Spartan-117 sir, may I ask something of you sir?"

"Go ahead."

"What is the equivalent of an Elder in terms of old military rank?"

Lyons raised an eyebrow at this and wondered even more about this armored giant of a man, and he could tell from the corner of his eye that many of the people in the bailey were watching him. Not that he could blame his people for doing so, the armor the man had on him, if it was indeed a man, resembled nothing that he knew of in the records the Brotherhood had pertaining to Power Armor. It was not the T-51 or the T-45 he knew of, nor the Advanced Power Armor or the Advanced Power Armor Mark 2 that the Enclave were known to use and that in itself was interesting, along with the veritable arsenal the man carried with him. He however placed that aside for now and decided to answer the man's question.

"I suppose that would meet with the equivalent of a General."

"I see, as to your question why I sought out the Brotherhood sir, I wished to access the archives that you have to find out what exactly happened here."

That statement confused and annoyed Lyons, the former was due t the fact that it sounded like the man had no idea what had happened for nearly two and a half centuries after the war. And the later was due to the fact that many of his men and his own brothers and sisters of the Brotherhood had paid with blood, suffering, and their lives to get this information. To have a stranger, a powerful looking one just waltz into the Citadel and want to access the archives without any explanation was a betrayal of their memories and sacrifices.

"I'm afraid that I cannot grant that request Spartan, many of my brothers and sisters and my people have suffered much to salvage all the data that can be found here. Many of them died to get that information for us to preserve as best we can to make sure it is not lost. To just allow you access just because you ask it is not permissible and in truth a blow to their memories and sacrifices."

That was when another voice came over the Spartan's speakers…and it was a female voice this time.

"I had a feeling that they were going to say that."

That startled the people around the Spartan as he shook his head and spoke to that same voice.

"Cortana, what exactly did I tell you about taking command of the MJOLNIR's speakers without telling me?"

"You told me not to, but I need to speak every now and then, besides that I think I should show myself before they start thinking you've lost your marbles Chief."

John sighed at that and placed his left hand open and out came Cortana though in this case she wore what appeared to be clothing, sampled from the leather jacket style armor that they had seen more than once. However instead of black leather, the leather was deep purple to suit Cortana's avatar. Once she appeared, she 'leaped' off John's hand and expanded to human form…further startling the Brotherhood and even making Lyons step back a little as the blonde woman spoke to the A.I

"What the hell are you?"

Cortana raised her eyebrow and replied.

"You've already heard my name but if you want to know it again why not? I am Cortana and I am an A.I though not the kind you're no doubt familiar with. And you are?"

The woman looked at both Cortana and the Master Chief sternly and replied.

"I am Sarah Lyons, Sentinel of the Capital Wasteland Brotherhood of Steel and leader of the Lyon's Pride, the elite of the Brotherhood forces."

Cortana nodded as she filed that away for later use and turned her attention to Elder Lyons and spoke with a measure of respect to the man as per protocol when addressing high ranking personnel though Lyons was no UNSC officer.

"Elder Lyons, we are not here as hostiles, we came here to look for the Brotherhood specifically to be allowed to access data. We're not here as enemies to your group and we have no desire to harm or corrupt the archives in any way. We merely need to use the data to try and verify some matters that have been our concern ever since…our arrival here to the Capital Wasteland. Is there any viable way we can work out some form of agreement that will allow us to gain permission from you for access to the files?"

Elder Lyons was silent at this as he considered what was before him, the appearance of this…A.I was utterly unexpected and truth be told shocking. He had read all the records pertaining to A.I and he had never heard of an A.I like this being before, as far as he knew, no A.I could take on so…life like and human a form. This was very interesting indeed and no doubt would have caused quite an uproar in the Brotherhood both in the Midwest and back at the West Coast. But that still did not mean that he was going to let his guard down. The fact that there was no way any A.I like this existed on their records meant that they must have come from outside of the Capital Wasteland, but where exactly?

Sarah then spoke to her father.

"Elder, they may have come from the Institute."

The old man looked thoughtfully at that possibility and replied.

"That may be a possibility Sarah, but what made you come to that conclusion?"

"We've been hearing reports of a rogue android that had escaped from the Institute a few weeks before, this could very well be the one. And there might have been a chance that the android also took an A.I with it."

John however cocked his head to the side and so did Cortana as he spoke.

"Institute? Care to explain what you mean by that?"

"I am kind of curious myself, I don't have any records of this Institute you mentioned."

Sarah looked at both the Spartan and the A.I and was not the least bit pleased by this. She was not being overtly paranoid but they had no idea what to make of the two and that seemed like the only logical conclusion at the time. She decided to try and see if they did recall anything about the Institute and maybe that could make things a darn sight easier for all of them in here in the Citadel.

"The Institute is the name for a large number of scientists and personnel that have a base of operations in what was once Boston Massachusetts. They develop a lot of technology there as well as make Androids or synthetic humans as well as other types. Recently we've gotten word that one of their said Androids got loose and was here in the Wasteland, no doubt taking some technology along with it as well. The Institute is also sending out teams to look for that said android as well as whatever technology it had taken from them."

Cortana sighed and then replied.

"And you think John here is the Android and that I am a part of that technology? That's kind of odd since if that Android is on the run, wouldn't it be strange for it to be running around in the open like this? And since when would an Android be wearing Power Armor?"

Sarah had to admit that this A.I did have a serious argument on it's side. But that hardly meant that she was going to just relax her stance with the two unknowns before her. That was when Lyons replied.

"It seems that the possibility of you being that Android is not going to be applicable. However, if you wish to gain access to the archives, you should at least prove yourself to the Brotherhood to show that we can trust you. I recently have a matter of a supply run to one of our forward outposts in the area that was once Pennsylvania Avenue, they have need of medical supplies, weapons, repair parts, food, and ammunition along with a new radio. If you can take part in this re-supply mission and prove yourself as someone that we can trust then we shall see to how you can get access to the archives. Does that sound like a fair deal?"

Cortana and John thought about that for a bit and seeing that this was at the very least a start in the right direction. With that in mind, John extended his hand to Cortana and the A.I smiled as she placed her hand on his. In that exact moment, Cortana disappeared with only a flash of blue mixed with gold around the Spartan's hand, showing that she had allowed herself to be downloaded back into her long time partner's Armor. Once that was done, much to the surprise of the assembled members of the Brotherhood of Steel, the Spartan relaxed himself a bit to get used to the feeling of Cortana being in the MJOLNIR, and when that was over and done with he then spoke to Elder Lyons.

"We'll take that assignment, when do we take the mission?"

Elder Lyons recovered and replied.

"It will be at least in a few hours, so if you have anything that you need done, then do so as soon as possible, I will have one of our Brothers to serve as senior officer of the mission, he will be the one to lead this group and will act as your commanding officer, is that acceptable to you?"

John nodded at that and Elder Lyons decided to head back into the Citadel, he had much to discuss with his trusted advisors on this new matter before them. He turned and spoke one last time to the Spartan as well.

"I would advise you to remain within the Bailey Spartan, I cannot exactly have you wandering around the Citadel until you are considered an ally or at least a friend of the Brotherhood of Steel."

"I understand sir."

…

In the Lyon's Den…

The Lyon's Pride were currently meeting with each other to talk about the matters pertaining to the Brotherhood, and they were not alone either as Elder Lyons was there, along with Head Scribe Rothchild, and Star Paladin Cross as well. Normally it would be everyday matters but right now, the topic of discussion was focusing on one or rather two beings.

Sarah gave her input on the matter first and foremost.

"I don't know if we can trust those two Elder, placing them in a Brotherhood supply run as escort might not be enough. Besides there is also a chance that he might actually kill our forces and take those supplies for himself and that is a serious possibility that can become reality in a heartbeat."

Lyons nodded a bit at his daughter's input as she had a lot of experience in battle and those two were unknown factors to them in more ways than one.

"I understand your concern Sarah, but this may not be the last test we can place on this Spartan, I have a feeling that this man is not going to be someone that can be considered as ordinary. The fact that he had helped rescue the people of Big Town and helping them not only fortify their location but also help arm them tells me that he is not an evil person since anyone armed the way he is could easily have destroyed Big Town and killed it's inhabitants without suffering a single injury in turn from them. Besides that, we have something he desires so he and his companion no doubt know that antagonizing us will not work in his favor. What are your thoughts on this man Cross?"

The dark skinned woman who wore the same Power Armor as Sarah was silent for a moment and gave her reply.

"I am not quite sure what to make of this…Spartan Elder Lyons, but I can tell from the way he moved and the way he acted when I observed him, he is a consummate professional. That tells me that despite his mysterious appearance, he is not someone that can be ignored…and that A.I, I am not sure what to make of it as well, but so far, I can tell that they seem to be working in unison with one another well."

"Hmmm…what are your other thoughts on this matter Sarah?"

"I can't really be sure, I will admit that my action in pointing him as an Android was a bit premature father but still, I feel that he is hiding something. None of the technology he carries resembles anything we have on record. None of the technology matches that of the Enclave either so I cannot really estimate what we should do concerning him. That A.I of his is also a mystery as well, I've not encountered A.I before, and certainly nothing like that one that has such an avatar before."

Rothchild was next to speak, while he normally stayed in the Lab to work on his pet project, he had taken the time to be out of the Lab that time and had been able to see the Spartan. Even though he only had a few minutes to look at the armored figure, he could already see something remarkable in the armor of that man.

"I have to agree with Cross, that man is unlike any person we have encountered, no doubt that he is the figure that Three Dog spoke of but to see him in person. No human I know of can be of that size naturally, and there is no way that his armor is like anything that we have on record. I have a feeling that there is far more to this man that meets the eye. If he only wants access to our archives, then we should consider it carefully."

Lyons then spoke to his long time friend and technological advisor as he was not sure that he heard Rothchild that clearly.

"So we should allow him access?"

"Not complete access for sure, but whatever he seeks and that only, however we should make sure to monitor him and that A.I companion of his. I have a feeling that while that A.I he has with him is indeed unknown to us, we must be wary of what it can do if given the chance to do so. I recommend an immediate security detail once the two of them have access to the archives and he should be monitored as well. In the mean time we can be able to at least study what he has on him, I know that it is a risk, but whatever we can learn from this man and that A.I can be a boon to the Brotherhood in the long run."

Sarah was not totally convinced but could see that there was validity in Rothchild's words, whatever the Brotherhood could learn from this being could indeed be valuable in the long run. But the dangers were just as serious as well so she was not going to totally agree with this plan of having him escort the supplies to the Pennsylvania outpost.

"Why can't we send the Pride down there instead?"

Lyons was able to answer that easily enough.

"Our scouts at the GNR outpost have just reported a large concentration of Super Mutants in the area and they are heading in the general direction of the outpost itself, and will be there in a few days. We have no clue as to the exact strength that we have to deal with, but there is no doubt in my mind that the fact that they are in large numbers means a siege, and reports of a Behemoth in the group add further weight to the need to reinforce and defend GNR. We cannot allow GNR to fall Sarah and allow the truth Three Dog speaks to be silenced. Nor can we lose the GNR Outpost to the Super Mutants as this will be a serious blow to the whole sector. That is why the Pride will be directed there as soon as possible."

Sarah could see why the Pride was being sent there, if the GNR outpost was lost, then they stood to lose the studio that served as a vital outpost in the area of the DC ruins, and the GNR station was the station they knew that told the truth about how things were in the Wasteland, not like that Enclave radio the fed only propaganda and bullshit to the world.

"All right, when do we make the move?"

"In three hours time, I have managed to assign Reddin to your team as she has passed most of the trials to qualify for being in the Pride. I know that she will do well for you and the others Sarah and while I wished for a larger force to fill things up, we have to make due as best we can."

"I understand, but who shall be in charge of the supply force?"

"Artemis will be leading the group, he will need to get out every now and then, and we can at least allow some of the Initiates a chance to learn real combat."

Cross looked at the list and replied.

"Pardon my worlds Elder, but these Initiates are not yet battle hardened, and they have not yet even earned the right to wear Power Armor, let alone take the training to wear them in the first place. Sending them now the way they are would be unwise and no doubt result in more losses than we can possibly afford."

"I know Cross, but with things the way they are, we have no choice, our numbers are spread too thin to be overtly cautious, I dislike it as well but that is where and how we stand, we can only hope that this will pay off in the end. If there is nothing else that is to be discussed then this meeting is now at an end. Do what you all can and we will meet again to discuss what will be our next course of action, dismissed."

Cross nodded and Rothchild excused himself to head off and get back to working on his project as well as check on the progress of the other Head Scribes on their respective Orders to see how they were doing with their own matters. This left Lyons with the task of gathering the supplies and informing Artemis of his newest assignment as well as selecting the best from the Initiates that Gunny had confirmed to show higher levels of proficiency than the others in his roster of Initiates. He doubted that Artemis was going to like this situation all that much, but he knew that the Knight was going to do his very best no matter what the situation that was before him.

…

In the Bailey…

John checked his gear for a bit while taking in the sight of the Citadel, or what was once the Pentagon, and truth be told, he was not too happy with the way it looked despite the reinforcement that was placed on it. Back in the UNSC he knew, the Pentagon was both nerve center and base for the UNSC forces during the war with the Covenant in North American theater of war and while it had been naturally damaged in the fighting, it was still in good condition. He wagered a guess that judging by the reinforcement and the look of the construction materials, the Brotherhood must have been here a while and had worked around the clock to fortify the place. And judging by the creatures and beings that littered the wastes, that was hardly surprising to say the very least.

The Spartan scanned the courtyard and while he did so, he was aware that a number of the Brotherhood soldiers in Power Armor were looking at him. And while he could not see their faces, he could tell of their intent. They didn't know what to make of him if he was a threat or not, and he was willing to guess that had this been under different circumstances, they would have shot him on sight or even mistaken him for one of the Super Mutants unless they were close enough to see his Armor as well as his weapons. Not that their rounds could do a good job due to the shields and advanced alloy construction of the MJOLNIR, but he was not taking any chances on that matter. Which was why he kept a very sharp eye on them in return while keeping his own intent a secret from them at the very same time, he was not going to shoot unless they shot first.

Still, doing this supply run for the Brotherhood should show to them that he was not a threat to them and his intent was not hostile though he had a feeling that it was not going to be last time he was going to be rubbing elbows with the Brotherhood.

Cortana was deep in thought and spoke to the Spartan.

"Chief, you know that sooner or later we're going to have to do more to prove that we're not the enemy to these guys, I doubt doing an escort job for a supply caravan is going to convince them completely that you're an ally."

"I know, but I don't think we have a choice at this moment, we need that information, not to mention these guys seem to be on the level…though their recruits don't strike me as the military type."

That was true, ever since his induction into the Spartan II Program, John had developed a talent for looking for the kinds of people who could fit into military life like a glove, and the ones that stuck out like a sore thumb who were not. And the vast majority of the Initiates were of the later category. But he kept that to himself for now as he needed to keep in mind that this was not his Earth so his way of thinking might not fit too well in this place.

As soon as he was done, he checked his MJOLNIR's built in chronometer saw that it was usually time for a meal. Normally he would have decided not to eat, but it had been a while and despite what most people thought about him and his fellow Spartans, they needed to eat like everyone else. With that in mind, he decided to grab his rucksack while placing down his Spartan Laser and activating the safety on the massive weapon. Once that was done he placed down his rucksack and looked for an MRE, and methodically did so until he found one.

The MRE had on it's menu ham, rice, tomato sauce, corn bits with carrots, lime flavored juice powder, and the wake up stims. He placed that aside and took out a canteen of water and began to set up his meal. Normally he would have preferred coffee but now was not the time for that as he needed to get some food into him and rest up before things got started.

As he opened the meal he methodically got his food ready and decided to eat the food cold and straight up as well. He took out the juice powder and poured it into the bottle of water and shook it as the powder was quick to mix into the water. Once that was done, he began to dig in after getting the spoon and fork from the pack. This naturally required him to remove his helmet and he did so as the air tight seals snapped open, freeing his head.

He looked about for a bit and saw that no one was currently looking at him and that was good to him as he disliked being in the spotlight as he ate. He had dealt with people staring at him before back in the UNSC Covenant war and when he did have to remove his helmet to eat in either the ship's galley or in a base's mess hall, or anywhere for that matter, there were plenty of stares at his direction. Thankfully where were not aimed at him and for that he was thankful as he ate his meal ravenously, making sure to eat his food slow and methodically despite his hunger to take in all the energy and nutrients that he would need.

Once he was done eating and taking the wake up stims for extra alertness, he sniffed the air and could already smell the burning ozone from laser weapons fire, the burning of primer and gun-powder, the faint smell of human sweat, he could hear the shouts of Gunny to his men, the responses from the said Initiates and so on. It almost reminded him of home at least to some degree as he shook his head and placed back on his helmet and decided to sit down and next to the wall to rest a bit. He removed the Spartan Laser from his back and checked it for damage, and when he was sure that it was all right, did the same to his other weapons to be make sure that they were still good. Once that was over, he leaned his head back to the wall and spoke to Cortana.

"Give me some time to rest Cortana."

"All right, get as much as you need Chief, I'll wake you up the second we've got company or when we have to move out."

With that out of the way, the Spartan decided to get as much shut eye as he could get. Years of warfare had allowed him to get most of his energy back with good old fashioned sleep, even if only for a few hours or so. The Covenant didn't exactly make sleeping easy since Marines had to be on the lookout for their Spec Ops forces that had a nasty habit of using their Active Stealth Camouflage to hide themselves and attack bases which were not expecting them. He had seen the results of such covert attacks more than once in his career and had nearly fallen into one himself. This was why he developed a habit of sleeping light in the field and while most people would have found the whole situation weird since sleeping in Power Armor didn't look comfortable in the least, he did not.

…

Later…

John was soon awoken by Cortana just after three hours and already the day was getting rather late. He woke up easily and soon spotted Elder Lyons walking up to him with what appeared to be another man in Power Armor and carrying an Assault Rifle. The man looked somewhat annoyed at something as well as showing lines of stress on his face while holding his helmet in hand. The Spartan got his gear together and was soon before the Elder, and Lyons introduced him to the one leading the supply convoy that he was going to be escorting. The man's name was Artemis and that got a bit of a chuckle from Cortana as that name was usually associated with a long dead Greek Goddess.

The man was less than pleased with the idea of taking the Spartan along for such a mission, and even less so when he was told by the Elder that he was getting not Knights or Paladins to support him, but Initiates, and that was obvious at his reaction.

"Initiates? Instead of soldiers I get Initiates? Elder that is insane! Working with someone I have next to no idea about it bad enough, but I have only Initiates as backup?"

"I understand your concerns Artemis, but we have to make due with what we have, besides, I have a feeling that your new companion may be able to more than make up for the whole situation in his own fashion. Three Dog seems to think highly of the man himself since he and that Lone wanderer we've been hearing about saved those people from Big Town."

Artemis looked at John and then back to the Elder and spoke once more.

"Is he going to be a liability in combat?"

John was a consummate professional and hardly cared for what most people would say about him unless he knew that their comments were important. But even so, he felt his hackles rise a bit at the idea of this guy asking if he was going to be a liability, that sort of assumption towards him was like a verbal slap in the face for him and that annoyed him more than most. Still he kept in mind that he was going to have the chance to prove him wrong.

Lyons then replied.

"I do not think so, Bael says that he and the Lone Wanderer managed to take out the Raiders hiding in the bridge very quickly. That tells me that he is hardly a recruit when it comes to fighting."

"And who's to say that he won't decide to just shoot me in the back, kill the Initiates and then run off with the supplies he's supposed to be escorting alongside the rest of us Elder?"

Lyons sighed a bit and smiled slightly.

"Sarah had that very same concern Artemis, but we happen to have something that he needs, which is why he agreed to aid us in order to get our trust. That will have to do for now, so we have to get underway, and before you ask the Pride is being redirected to reinforce GNR which is why you and the Initiates will be taking this mission."

The Initiates were soon introduced to the Spartan and he could already see that he was going to have to be ready. They hardly looked all that ready even with basic training being behind them, and with that in mind the Spartan and the A.I already began to catalogue the names of the Initiates as well as their appearance. One named Leslie appeared to be a Caucasian female with black hair and had green eyes and carried herself as something of a close combat specialist due to the fact that she carried a shotgun, though John was still leaving that idea up for debate. Hank appeared to be the kind one associated with a Sniper though his choice of a Scoped Magnum revolver was bit much. Adams and Max, both African American carried Assault Rifles and could be termed as Rifle men and the same could be said for the Caucasian male Max who was blond as he too carried an Assault Rifle, while the last Initiate with Asian features on her named Cassandra was what one could call a scout due to her choice weapon of a Hunting Rifle.

With the introductions out of the way, the group then headed for the gate which was soon opened for them as well as the Pride. The elite unit of the Brotherhood was now on the move to their respective objective and did so at a fairly quick pace as time was against them. Sarah gave Artemis a salute as she and the Pride moved out in sync with one another, Artemis did the same and placed his helmet on as he led the team to the bridge as they were going to go via a different area of the DC tunnel network to get to Pennsylvania Avenue.

…

As the group moved over the bridge, John was wary of the area while cradling his MA5C ICWS Assault Rifle and was next to the Brotherhood Knight who went by the name of Artemis. The Spartan was patient and began to quickly make plans right off the bat in the preparations for any possible encounters with any hostile elements from the Citadel. He turned however when he was spoken to by Artemis.

"Spartan, I need to ask you some questions."

"Go ahead."

"Who exactly are you?"

"Spartan-117, you can call me Master Chief or just Chief."

"Hmm…so why are you working with the Brotherhood?"

"I needed to access the archives for something of importance, your Elder decided to allow me if I do this for the Brotherhood."

"I heard from the others that you might be some sort of android from the Institute, is that true?"

"No, I do not know what this Institute is nor do I have any memory of coming from that place. But I am hardly an android though one can consider me more of a cyborg."

"Uh huh, so why would you want access to the archives?"

"Let's just say that I need to get data on what happened here in the DC area."

This confused Artemis even more and that added to his annoyance and confusion. There was a lot going on and it was already becoming a stressful situation for the whole Detachment. And here he was escorting vital supplies to one of their outposts and he only had Initiates in his force and then his massive figure in Armor who carried a veritable arsenal on him of all things and a mystery who could very well stab him in the back when he would least expect it.

He sighed a bit and that was when the Spartan spoke.

"Something troubling you?"

"It's…sometimes I feel like the Brotherhood's going nowhere…we've been fighting for so long and we've not even made a damn dent on those Super Mutants, we're bleeding our supplies dry and all we're getting out of it is more injured or dead. I don't know…sometimes I think that maybe Casdin had the right idea and so did the Outcasts."

John did not like the implications in that particular statement and made that obvious when he spoke.

"You're entertaining thoughts of going AWOL?"

Artemis turned and fiercely replied to that.

"No! I just…aw hell, I'm just damn frustrated that's all, Lyons has been always watching out for us, hell it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have even lived this long. Forget it, it's just the stress I guess, the sooner we get this mission over and done with and we get rid of some of those damned Super Mutants in the process I'll feel better. I just hope that these Initiates are up to the task."

John could understand the stress, he had seen a lot of veteran Marines sometimes crack under pressure and even some ODSTs as well. But unlike this guy, they sucked it up and knew that they had a job to do, still venting out one's frustrations was not a bad thing. It was here that he decided to ask a question of his own.

"You mind if I ask you a question?"

Artemis was silent for a while and then nodded.

"All right, you answered mine, in a sense anyway, so I guess you deserve to ask your question, what do you want to know?"

"What exactly is the Brotherhood?"

Artemis thought it over and replied.

"Hell, I can't really answer that, I'm more of the front line kind of man, I leave the history lessons to the Scribes, namely those under Jameson at the Order of the Quill. But I can say is that we were part of a group founded by some soldiers and their families…I'd say about…two hundred years ago there in the West Coast. There's our main headquarters in some place called Lost Hills where the other members of the Brotherhood are at right now. There's another force called the Midwestern Brotherhood somewhere out in the Midwest of the US but they're kind of rogue at the moment. I know the mission though, we were supposed to salvage any and all data and technology from ruins and other sources to preserve them, and we were supposed to hunt down any leftover remains of the Master's Army. Lyons got us helping the Wastelanders who live here though, not to mention hunt down the Super Mutants. You can guess how that's been working out for us so far…anyway, you might want to talk to the Scribes if you want to know more since they know more about it than I do."

"I see…"

John then spoke to Cortana who had also recorded the conversation.

"Any ideas?"

"Their ancestors could possibly be remnants of what would have been the US Army, possibly a fairly large detachment and stationed at a high risk location or a covert base if their families came along with them. My guess is that they must have taken shelter in their base during the nuclear bombardment and left after taking all that they could once the radiation levels were low enough to risk it. This 'Lost Hills' must be a government bunker/base of some sort made by the old Government here in this reality since the UNSC archives made no mention of any base going by that name. As far as I can piece together, most of their equipment no doubt is salvaged from bases and bunkers that they must have records of so it makes some sense why they would go around salvaging and preserving technology and data. Lose all that and who knows how this world was going to turn out. I'm still out on whether these guys are…well the good guys but at least we know something about them."

John nodded but then he stopped, he picked up something on his Motion Sensors and they were red, showing hostiles in the area. He quickly turned to Artemis and spoke quickly to the Paladin.

"Hostiles!"

That stopped the whole team as the Spartan quickly moved in and to their surprise the man moved rather silently…something that should have been very hard considering the Power Armor he wore and the weapons he had on. Artemis placed those thoughts aside and followed the man as John got to cover and was looking ahead of him. As soon as he got there, the Paladin saw what the Spartan had somehow found out and silently swore.

"Super Mutants…I though the Pride wiped them out from this area three days ago…they just came back like a bunch of damned locusts."

"I count at least a dozen of them, two on that upper bridge area, no doubt watching the area for intruders, the other two are further to the side, no doubt for ambush work."

"How the hell do you know about them?"

"My helmet's armed with Motion Sensors as well as built in binoculars not to mention the fact that those two up there are armed with heavy weapons, one with the Rocket Launcher, the other with a Mini-gun, and the others look to have Hunting Rifles and Assault Rifles on them."

Artemis swore at this and replied.

"Great…head on attack is a bad idea, we'd be slaughtered the second we get spotted…all right, we'd better plan this out fast before those green brutes find out we're here."

The two moved back to the Initiates and the second the recruits heard of the Super Mutants in the area and what fire power they had on them, they were less than thrilled. John could already see that this was not going to be a good day for all involved but that route was the only way into the DC Tunnel network so they could get to the base owned by the Brotherhood in Pennsylvania Avenue.

As they got together, John decided to let Artemis run the show, he was the senior here and the fact that he was the one who led this group added weight to that. Cortana herself was already working on how they would be able to help them out. So far the Initiates were armed with an assortment of weapons, the one named Cassandra was armed with a Hunting Rifle, Adams was armed with an Assault Rifle, Hank was armed with a Scoped Magnum, Leslie was armed with a Shotgun, and Max was armed with an Assault Rifle as well. These guys showed some skill since they carried their weapons well enough but John was not going to hold his breath on the matter until the fighting starts.

Artemis then spoke to the group.

"Leslie, Adams and I will go around back and try to flank them while the rest of you wait for us to attack once we get rid of the ones we can take down. Once we get their attention, hit them hard and fast."

John then decided to unlock the Spartan Laser while placing his MA5C on his back with a slight thump of metal on metal as the magnetic straps kicked in. The Spartan hefted the weapon easily and then spoke to the assembled Brotherhood soldiers.

"I'll deal with them."

Artemis nodded at that, and despite his worry was eager to see what this weapon could do and as soon as the place was set, he and his team went on their way. He hoped that he made the right call on this one. The Knight moved quickly and managed to spot what appeared to be a Centaur and quickly changed plans as he ordered Adams and Leslie to move a bit slower to make sure they did not spook the creature. Centaurs always were a pain as they were like watch dogs for Super Mutants and had to be removed quickly. He then outlined a plan to get rid of the creature fast and make sure that it was not going to alert it's big masters.

As soon as he and his team were a fair distance from the creature, both he and Adams moved to a dark corner and he ordered Leslie to shoot at the Centaur. The Initiate did just that and soon was able to hit the creature and force it to try and locate her. The woman was very worried but knowing that Artemis and her fellow Initiate was there made it easier to deal with.

Her shots managed to make the creature go to her direction, and soon it spotted her and began to spit out the sludge that made up it's main ranged attack at her. The woman managed to avoid being hit but moved back to lure the creature further. The Centaur moved closer and closer, eager to pursue and either sludge the woman to death or club her to death, however it's actions allowed the two ambushers to be ready for their attack and the very second that it was close to them, both Knight and Initiate moved out of cover and charged the creature.

The centaur had not expected that and both Artemis and Adams had their weapon barrels a mere inch from the creature and fired. The closeness to the creature served to suppress the attack somewhat and the Centaur was now full of holes and fell dead. Artemis was relieved at this and quickly rallied his team on the off chance that the enemy had heard them. Thankfully it seemed that the Super Mutants thought the weapons fire came elsewhere and ignored it, this allowed the team to move forward and get into position near the ruins and soon spot two of the Super Mutants they intended to ambush.

Leslie gulped a bit and looked to Artemis and when he nodded she took aim and fired…her round hit the Super Mutant right in the back and the creature roared in anger at being hit and turned around, showing that it too was armed with a Hunting Rifle. Adams and Artemis also got up and fired at the same time, hitting the Super Mutant who roared out in anger as well as pain and it's companion turned, showing that it was armed with a Sledge Hammer.

That was the signal as the Spartan moved in and quickly aimed the Spartan Laser as the heavily armed Super Mutants on the bridge overhead. They spotted the Spartan for a moment and thought that he was one of them until they spotted the other Initiates. They were about to fire but never got the chance as the super hot beam of the Spartan Laser hit the bridge. A massive explosion occurred and the two heavy weapon wielding Super Mutants were hit hard, if the heat of the Lasers did not kill them along with the energy from the said weapon, then the fall from ten stories certainly would.

That was enough for the Initiates to attack the two Super Mutants who charged out with their weapons blazing as the Spartan switched to his all fired at once and while the Initiates were able to kill one of the Super Mutants, they were forced to take cover as the other Super Mutants arrived and attacked with a hail of bullets., This allowed the Spartan to eliminate the second of the attacking pair, but he could tell that with them pinned down, the Initiates were in trouble so now it was his turn.

Cortana knew it as well and smiled as she spoke to her guardian.

"It's show time John."

"I know."

…

The Master Chief charged right for the group of Super Mutants while firing his MA5C, the rounds tore through them quickly and one dropped dead with several smoking holes in it's body. It gurgled out some blood from it's mouth as the others tried to kill the armored human. But to their surprise the Spartan was moving too fast for them to hit and that allowed the Spartan to kill another one before his weapon ran dry. One Super Mutant fired a Hunting Rifle round at the Spartan, but the Chief turned at high speed and was beside the creature and introduced his Rifle butt into the side of the creature's head, the sound of shattering bone was enough to tell what happened.

The Super Mutant dropped dead as another tried to attack but the Spartan reacted quickly as he moved his MA5C to his back and moved forward, with his shield glowing as the hits came. That startled the Super Mutant shooting at the Spartan as John quickly grabbed it's weapon, yanked it out and quickly smashed a kick right into the solar plexus of the creature. The Super Mutant roared in pain as the Spartan then moved to smash an open palm strike to the jaw that shattered the bone and cracked even some teeth to send the creature back to the ground. The Spartan then tossed the Assault Rifle into the face of another Super Mutant to interfere with it's vision, making the mutant all the more angry at the Spartan, but this allowed the Master Chief to remove his M7S and fire several rounds into the throat of the creature as well as the chest, reducing both areas into shredded meat.

The fourth attacker roared and tried to charge the Spartan while discarding it's own weapon, the Spartan spotted that and quickly ducked the incoming fist while ramming his shoulder into the chest of the creature. He then used his own strength and the creature momentum to toss the creature of his back and as it landed in a heap, he turned around and emptied the M7S' last ammunition into the face of the creature, he placed that aside and quickly got away from the incoming fire of the fifth Super Mutant and closed the gap, he quickly grabbed the weapon of the creature and then noted that the other one was about to blind side him with a nail board. Quickly reacting he yanked the fifth Mutant forward while moving aside, allowing the sixth to smash it's weapon into the face of it's companion just as the Spartan launched a powerful chop to the back of the head of the other Super Mutant, snapping it's neck.

John then took out his MA5C and seeing that there were some rounds left charged just as the sixth Super Mutant pushed away the body of it's comrade, roaring in rage…only to see the Spartan leaping him in a flip and firing his MA5C's last rounds right into the face. The Super Mutant's head exploded as the Spartan landed gracefully to the group as the now headless creature fell dead.

The Initiates with the Spartan were utterly shocked at what they had just seen before them and so did the others who had just recovered from their own battle. Artemis, Leslie and Adams managed to kill the Hunting Rifle wielding Super Mutant but the last one managed to get to them. It's Sledge Hammer left a dent on Artemis' Power Armor in the chest area, but he fought through it and fired back as Leslie and Adams also fired at the Super Mutant, forcing it back, They moved away though Adams was knocked aside by the Super Mutant's back hand, it was about to kill the young Initiate when Artemis quickly charged and fired at it's back forcing it away from Adams just as Leslie fired her Hunting Rifle, and her shot was lucky at it struck the creature right in between the eyes, killing it.

It was here that they moved out as best they could with adrenaline in their veins to help the others…and in time to witness the attack of the Spartan on the six Super Mutants.

…

Artemis looked at the carnage as the Spartan reloaded his MA5C calmly while surrounded by the bodies of the Super Mutants who he had just slaughtered right before his eyes and that of the other Initiates, and needless to say, he and the others were looking like they were the proverbial deer before the headlights of a charging car. Fighting at least six Super Mutants by one's self was seen as lunacy even in the Brotherhood, especially since the vast majority of their soldiers were mostly Initiates, but this guy just torn through the six like they were hardly a threat and he moved like fighting was as simple as eating and breathing was to them.

He and the others were able to see the Spartan turned around and aimed his Assault Rifle at the face of one of the still barely breathing Super Mutants and fired one round to kill it. The beast dropped dead with a smoking hole in between the eyes. The Spartan then walked to them and spoke to the Knight.

"You all right sir?"

Artemis remembered where he was and nodded.

"Fine…Chief…where in the hell did you learn to fight like that?"

The Master Chief looked at the bodies and shrugged as he replied.

"That's a long story, but I trust that this proves that I am not a liability?"

Artemis couldn't help but shake his head at that, no doubt that comment he made back in the Citadel had just come back to bite him in the ass. This guy was something else entirely and he had a feeling that before this mission was over he was going to have a LOT to tell the Elders and the rest of his Brothers.

"Oh yeah it has, let's keep on moving, Chief you have the point."

"I understand sir."

With that, the Spartan moved out while Artemis and the Initiates decided to salvage what they could from the slain Super Mutants and while the Mini-gun would have been useful, it would have slowed them down so they left it behind though Initiate Adams made a comment on that.

"You know, maybe we should have given this to the Spartan sir, I wonder what he'd be like with that in hand."

Artemis shrugged as he replied to that comment.

"Trust me rookie, I doubt we've seen the last of what this guy can do in the battle field I assure you, Now let's get moving and get those supplies to the others in the base. Take what you can from the uglies, I doubt they will be needing them."

"Yes sir!"

(Looks like this mission is not going to be the least bit boring today, I've got the feeling that by the time this is over I will have a lot to tell the Elder and the others.)

…

To be continued…

…

Author's Notes:

Well, that is the start of the newest chapter for this story of mine, and I hope that this will show that this story is far from dead an gone. In this chapter, we now get to see the temporary parting of Miranda and John and him working with the Brotherhood of Steel for a while. Don't worry about the separation, they will be meeting back soon enough and working side by side soon enough, and yes you will see John use his Spartan Laser on a Behemoth soon enough.

This is a mission that is a normal supply run to the Brotherhood forward base located in Pennsylvania Avenue and it will turn into something a lot more complicated soon enough. You can bet that in the next chapter we will wrap it up and there the Brotherhood will finally get to see the Spartan in action.

I plan to have some of the things John did in the Halo Legends story and also some from my previous works so I can make sure to show the Spartan's full skill set. Now I will not try to replicate those battles too much and try to make original moves for this story. I also plan to make the battles in the coming chapters a lot more fitting for the story and the theme in question so I can at least try to keep with my own standards.

Now in this portion of the story, he will be working with the Brotherhood and will rub elbows with Sarah and her unit, the Lyon's Pride. When I played Fallout 3 myself I was very interested in seeing them in action and I like what I saw. Not that everyone would agree to my assessment, so I will try to add some level of realism to the group so they will look a lot more like a shock trooper team than just some random guys in a game with higher than normal stats.

Now I can bet it will look somewhat unfair for me to have them work with the Spartan right off the bat, which is why I have this battle planned out that does not take place in GNR yet where the Spartan's skills, experience, and more will be seen by the Brotherhood which will make things a lot more interesting. Now don't expect Sarah to trust the Chief and Cortana right off the bat, remember she is one of the best fighters in the Brotherhood in the Fallout Lore so it will take more than weapons and armor to impress someone like Sarah Lyons. John will prove soon enough that he is not someone that is a regular fighter to the Brotherhood and Sarah as well so as time will pass she will begin to respect him considerably.

…

Now if anyone will ask if I will go through with my plan to have lemons in the story, then the answer is yes. But not now…that will happen after a few more chapters and after some time that will be dedicated to bonding between the Chief and the woman who he will be with. Sarah and Miranda look like very viable choices due to their own respective merits which will be revealed soon enough as the story will continue to grow and mature.

It might take some effort for me to get Sarah out of her Power Armor, and no doubt it will be a challenge with Miranda as well, but it will be worth it all if I am able to do it all right.

To me, the lemons will be a welcome respite and while I will no doubt get some complaints, I am willing to deal with them. This is my story and if I want to make some lemons for it, then I will, though I will make sure that it will be to a standard that will make the said lemons worth reading.

…

It will also be here that I will be working on the idea of John eventually facing the Outcasts as well as getting a chance to take a Power Armor suit for testing back in the Pioneer. I also plan for John to make some new add-ons for a number of weapons that are found in the Fallout 3 universe, so they will no doubt play an interesting role in the story itself. This way the weapons in the Fallout 3 universe will be a lot more effective than they already are.

…

Also, I will be updating VanDread Halo the Second Stage next, then G.I Joe Halo, and finally World of Warcraft Halo. Once that is done, I will be freezing my Halo stories for now to update my Naruto stories and the others as well.

I wanted you all to know this so you will not have to ask me which story I will be updating next, so I will also be taking a break to avoid being burdened by writer's block, besides, I have a lot to do and I need to get all of that done before the end of the month since I will soon go to work as per my profession as a teacher.

See you and thank you for all your support.


	7. Chapter 7

Fallout: Hope from Beyond the Stars

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Fallout and Halo so don't bother me about it.

Chapter 5

Meeting Three Dog…

( ): Thoughts

…

In the Wasteland…

John looked around while cradling his MA5C ICWS Assault Rifle and was currently leading the Brotherhood group, making sure that he was able to be at a distance that meant that he can move to join them if they needed help. For now, there had not been any sign of enemy forces or any more of the mutants of this place. He took in the sights of the ruins of D.C and he made sure to keep his senses at full alert.

The Spartan would routinely look back at the team and see how they were doing, and seeing that they were able to keep up, he relaxed himself while still keeping an eye out for trouble. He checked the Spartan Laser on his back and was happy that it was still charged and ready for use, but he was only going to use it if he had to. As he and the Brotherhood supply convoy moved through the roads, he spotted the massive carrier in the distance and he also noted the Jefferson Memorial. The place looked a LOT different from the images he had seen of the place briefly in history as there were some large pipes there along with a lot of machinery. He moved a bit closer and used the zoom feature in hi helmet and spotted a number of Super Mutants in the area and those 'guard dogs' that they had with them.

He ignored them for now and moved on, spotting a very well fortified location nearby and could tell from the potent smell of burning fuel and the sight of bags filled with bleeding body parts that this was a camp for Super Mutants. Thankfully there were no signs of the monsters, no doubt hunting for either food, picking fights with the locals, or kidnapping people. Neither of those thoughts worked with John but he had a job to do and he was going to do it right, he can worry about the other details later.

"Rivet City…not the most friendly of places for us in the Brotherhood, but at least they are nice enough to trade with us for supplies and basic goods."

John turned to Artemis and nodded at the assessment of the Brotherhood Knight, the aircraft carrier looked nothing like the carriers he had seen in the planet based UNSC Navy but there was no denying that back in it's heyday before this war that doomed this…version of Earth, it must have been an imposing sight. He knew that the history of carriers was very much part of naval warfare when the events of Pearl Harbor took the focus from battleships to carriers for the American Navy. He placed those thoughts out of his mind for now as he spoke to the man who was in charge of the mission.

"How long as it been here?"

The man shrugged, an exaggerated look in Power Armor to be sure and replied.

"Not too sure really, it's been here ever since we set up, probably one of the few places that have been secured, you might want to ask the locals for a history lesson, but I do know that their little drawbridge is the reason they don't suddenly get invaded. They move that away from the mainland and just pepper the would-be invaders from the decks and portholes."

John took that in and decided to reserve looking at Rivet City at a later date, for now they were heading into one of the train stations. Moving through the roads and thankfully not encountering resistance but that would change soon enough in his mind. And he was right as he quickly picked up movement in his HUDs radar. He stopped and quickly gave the gesture of holding their position, Artemis would have normally chaffed at the idea of this guy leading but after seeing him in action and seeing that he had a lot of experience, decided not make an issue out of it.

He gave the order for them to halt and nodded to John as the Spartan went ahead, very silently, so silent that it would have been impossible for anyone to hear him despite the fact he was wearing Power Armor. The Brotherhood Paladin was still trying to figure out this man but already he could see that this guy was no slouch when it came to moving around. Moving in stealth with Power Armor was no mean feat and even if done, it was very difficult to mask the noise of the servos of the armor.

This Spartan on the other hand was doing it like he was doing this sort of thing for years and his armor did not even make a slight creak. It was something that was a major leap in design since as far as he knew, not even the original Brotherhood had developed any new Power Armor. And it did not match anything the Enclave had ever cooked up at all.

(Who the hell trained this guy? And where the hell did they build this man's armor)

It did not take long for John to return to them and report.

"The Station's being watched by a number of Talon Company mercenaries, one's armed with an Assault Rifle of Chinese design, another is armed with a Shotgun, and the last appears to be armed with a Combat Knife.."

Artemis swore at that a bit and replied.

"Those mercs will just shoot whoever isn't wearing their symbols so no way will they listen to us, and I got word that some bounty, a damned big one is on you as well. We're going to have to take them out and make sure to do it fast."

"I'll do it."

The Spartan turned to where the mercs were and quickly moved into position, allowing Artemis to follow him along with the others. As soon as they were there, they were only able to see the Spartan as he got ready. They were not sure just what was cooking in the armored man's mind but there was no doubt that it was going to be over very quickly. The Spartan suddenly moved out and they could only gap as he moved like a blur.

(Damn…that guy can move!)

Artemis and the other Initiates moved and saw the Spartan attack the Talon Company Mercs, the mercs barely had time to respond as the Spartan came in to play. The Shotgun wielding merc barely turned to suddenly get a massive fist in the face that actually snapped the neck of the man like it was a twig. The Spartan grabbed the Shotgun and yanked it forward gently, that allowed the weapon to hit the still actively moving finger in the trigger. That action made the weapon go boom and smashed into the chest of the Knife wielding merc. That forced him back as the Spartan turned and aimed his Assault Rifle in one hand into the face of the Assault Rifle wielding mercenary.

BBBRRRRAAAACCCCKKKKK!

The man's face was reduced into a mess of blood, flesh, bone, and brain matter before he could even fire his rifle. The last merc recovered and was about to attack the Spartan. John turned and quickly attacked the mercenary with one massive kick into the chest. That attack was more than enough to send the man flying back and smashing into the station's roof posts. The impact was such that the man's head smashed hard into the post and the sound of cracking was heard.

That was more than enough to tell anyone that the man was dead as the sight of blood was all over the place along with flesh and brain matter. They packed it up but Artemis made sure to field strip the mercs, taking their ammunition, food, and anything else of value while leaving behind the rest. They moved in and as they entered, they soon spotted that there were a number of Raiders taking residence in the area. That was more than enough to convince the group to attack.

…

The Raiders had no time to react as John appeared and quickly fired a storm of bullets from his Assault Rifle, reducing a number of the Raiders into living target boards. The two he targeted danced to the bullets and soon dropped dead, and as the rest tried to react and fight back, the rest of the Brotherhood took in and shot the rest, One Raider who was apparently hopped up on drugs charged at John with a pool cue of all things and John retaliated in kind by side stepping the strike to his head so as not to waste his time, then introduced the butt of his Assault Rifle right into the side of the neck on the Raider.

The brutal snapping of bone and popping cartilage was heard and the raider dropped dead in an instant as John quickly took the pool cue and tossed it like a javelin at another Raider who was about to prime a Grenade and chug it at the Brotherhood Initiates. The now lethal weapon impaled the Raider right at the shoulder, going through the bone due to the sheer strength imparted to it by the Spartan. That action was more than enough to make the Raider lose his grip on the Grenade as it dropped and rolled to the side and went boom…blowing him aside and ripping off a leg.

The Spartan turned and dropped another Raider coming at him with a Combat Shotgun as the pellets were blocked by his Shields. The Super soldier responded by tapping his Assault Rifle's trigger in the usual fashion, three taps and sent two bullets into the chest and one in the head, killing his attacker quickly.

The firefight did not last long as the team finally wiped out the Raiders and Artemis checked the Chronometer in his Power Armor and saw that it was noon, seeing that the Initiates were in need some rest and food, he gave orders for them to salvage what they could from the Raiders and also toss away the bodies somewhere, once that was out of the way, they would go and get some much needed food and rest.

The Initiates were happy for that and did so as John watched the supplies for them when ordered by Artemis. Once the grisly job was over, the Initiates got down and began to eat what they had not only brought with them but what they were able to find from the area around them.

…

As they rested in the ruined station where the Raiders had once taken residence, John was currently looking at the area to see the condition of the city's transit system. Which was obviously quite the mess and as such, he no problem guessing that this city took the full force of some nuclear weapon hits. It made sense to him that some sections of the city fared better than others but the ruined city was still going to be hard to navigate in and going to the streets was not going to be a simple thing with not only the barriers but, the beings there were in the area.

John took this rest break to have a discussion with Cortana and since it was through the neural link, the Brotherhood of Steel were not going to notice. They had already guessed that for now they had the advantage in terms of supplies and logistics. The Pioneer had MORE than enough supplies and resources for them to use in terms of ammunition, food, medical supplies, weapons, vehicles and whatnot so they did not have to rely on the weapons of this…Wasteland too much.

"All right Cortana, we need to figure out just what our next step is."

"I know…this is a situation that none of us prepared for, we might be the ONLY UNSC personnel who have seen what could be a possible answer to one of the biggest dangers of Slipspace Drives. I'm saying that THIS is the result, just a possibility; the reason to why we are still alive is a mystery, but no sense dwelling on it either. I have some good news though not by much."

"What?"

"I have files on what happened to us in the Pioneer when we made the Slipspace Jump, I have a feeling that by tweaking the settings on the Drive as well as the coordinates, we might be able to take the whole trip in reverse."

"Open a portal BACK to our world? Is that even possible?"

"It can be done, it's difficult for sure, but not impossible John, besides we do have to go back to the UNSC though it might be a while before we can. We need to make changes to make sure that when we leave Slipspace we actually arrive at our reality."

The Spartan thought it over and had to concede to that point at this time frame, if they could replicate the Slipspace event in reverse, it just might send them back. Still there were no doubt going to be obstacles to that being possible, and there were two that were the most glaring in his mind. He spoke to Cortana about this as he knew that she might have a solution in mind already, but there was no sense in not covering any possible angles.

"We do have two problems Cortana, the first is resources, we need two vital materials for those replacement parts, and the second is that we don't have the facilities for the manufacturing of said parts."

The A.I then replied.

"There are at least two options, and both of them have advantages or disadvantages…though I think that the second option is a lot more viable…difficult to be sure, but viable either way."

"All right, let me hear it."

…

While this was going on, Artemis was busy checking on the supplies of his team and checking their weapons, he was still not happy with working with only Initiates but at least they were not too bad. So far they were currently resting in Anacostia Train Station and have disposed of the Raiders who were there as well as taking their weapons and ammunition, there were some injuries but thankfully no losses, and at least the supplies were not damaged. Taking this break was good since he knew that riding the Initiates hard would not work well if they were too exhausted, hungry and more.

As he got himself done with the job and he was now focusing his attention on the Spartan who was with them. The man was certainly someone that he had not ever met before and he still wondered on how he was able to do all things, where did he come from, who made his Armor, and who trained him. The fact that his armor actually had working personnel sized energy SHIELDS only added to the mystery. There was no doubt in the Paladin's mind that he was going to be someone that he was happy to at least have on their side. He also decided that when the mission was over, he was going to report to the Elder that the Master Chief deserved to be allowed to access the data archives. Who knows, helping this guy might actually be a boon in disguise to the Brotherhood. But he placed those thoughts aside as he finally checked his chronometer and spoke to the group.

"Okay people, we have a long way to go to the outpost so let's not waste any more time. Get your gear ready and let's move out."

The Initiates nodded and soon they were ready to go as Artemis spoke to the Spartan.

"Chief, you have the point, we'll cover you if you encounter trouble."

"Roger that sir."

The Spartan soon moved to the front with his Assault Rifle at the ready and moved through the exit while the others followed him. Once they came out of the transit tunnels, they soon found that it was going to be midday now and they were still a long ways off. The sounds of sporadic gunfire filled the Spartan's ears every now and then, along with any other sounds as he guided the group to their potential destination.

The group moved into the D.C Ruins once more and John as well as Cortana were busy doing what they could to guide the team of Brotherhood members to their next stop. All the while, the Spartan kept his entire array of senses alert as well as the functions of his MJOLNIR. That caution came in handy when he spotted a pair of Super Mutants moving about ahead of them. He pointed them out to the others and he asked permission to use the Hunting Rifle for a bit as he needed to take out the larger Super Mutant from the elevated position.

Artemis nodded in agreement and John was soon handed the weapon while giving his MA5C Assault Rifle to one of the Initiates. The Spartan moved very quietly and got himself into a good position and then to the surprise of the group, he took up what appeared to be an old plastic bottle and placed it before the barrel of the gun. He then took out a large amount of wire and began to use it to tighten the bottle around the barrel of the gun.

The Spartan knew that it was not going to be easy but he placed such thoughts aside. He took aim and then fired the weapon, the Brotherhood had no idea who among the Frankenstein monsters the man shot as they could see clearly, but they soon saw it as the one Super Mutant on the top of the vehicle hulk suddenly roared out in pain and took up it's mini-gun to begin hunting to locate the Spartan. Apparently the Spartan had used the plastic bottle as a form of makeshift sound suppressor.

…

The Spartan used his MJOLNIR's magnification functions and used that to serve as his sniper scope and fired at the Super Mutant in the eye. The shot hit hard and fast and took out the creature's eye, namely the right one. The Spartan moved and fired at the next Super Mutant as the one he targeted now was armed with an Assault Rifle. The round flew towards the Super Mutant and hit him right in the throat. The bullet did not go in deeply as far as the Spartan could see from the distance, but he saw it cut through the skin and began to rip into the flesh of the Super Mutant. The being roared in pain and anger for a brief moment until it held it's now bleeding neck. John followed that up with another round and this time, it got the creature right in the left eye.

…

Soon the creature got another round courtesy of the Spartan right in the other eye and soon it dropped dead. The one with the mini-gun was utterly enraged and began to fire, John felt his shield flicker but not by much from being hit by a stray round but that was enough for him to clear out as he moved back a bit to avoid the Super Mutant. The others in the group also took cover to hide from the enraged Super Mutant as John quickly moved to get a better vantage point. As soon as he got it, he fired again and soon the bullet sailed through the air and struck the new threat right in the eye, namely the right eye.

The creature roared but John canceled out the sound as he took aim and fired again, and the bullet sailed right into the other working eye of the mini-gun wielding Super Mutant. That was enough to end things as the creature, devoid of any ability to see roared and tossed away it's weapon and tried to lash out and charge at anything it could feel. John decided to move away and get his Assault Rifle back and motioned for the group to follow him, leaving behind the enraged Super Mutant to flail around in anger and pain.

The group managed to make it further until Cortana informed John of an incoming radio broadcast. Apparently it belonged t a group calling itself Reilly's Rangers and at the moment, they were currently in a hotel a fair distance away, holding off what appeared to be a Super Mutant force intent on either killing them or worse, John filled that away and decided to ask Cortana if she could send out a spy satellite from the Pioneer to get some visual data on them. The A.I nodded and was soon going to do her work, but for now, they had to continue to guide the supply convoy to their current destination.

It was not long before they reached the destination they had to go to and after Artemis cleared the Spartan, John requested permission to join the Paladins outside to help protect the base as they were going to focus on the distribution of he supplies. It was going to take some time but John did not mind. He moved with the other Paladins outside and did not mind their stares at him as they had spotted him. It was only the fact that they were in hostile territory that made the Paladins turn and stare away.

However, John was soon able to use the magnification systems of his MJOLNIR and spotted a band of Super Mutants coming in. There appeared to be some who were armed with wooden boards with nails in them, two with Hunting Rifles, and two more with Assault Rifles. John then cut the enhanced vision mode and spoke to the Paladins.

"I spotted several Super Mutants coming in, possibly a raiding force."

"How can you tell?"

John did not reply just yet and one of the Paladins was about to comment on that when there came the roars, confirming that there were indeed Super Mutants heading their way. The others Brotherhood members came out, including the Initiates and Artemis as the Super Mutants now came into closer view for them to see. John however quickly took out his Spartan Laser and took aim at the targets in question. He used the magnification system to get a good lock on the targets that were better and soon fired.

The Super Mutants who came charging in were greeted with a massive red beam of pure destructive energy as the Spartan Laser unleashed its full might on them. They had little to no warning as the massive beam instantly incinerated it's way through two of them who were in a line and armed with wooden boards, and cut down another who was armed with a Hunting Rifle. The other Super Mutants charged as John quickly placed the still smoking weapon on his back and took his M7S SMGs in both hands and charged in, quickly judging distance and speed with the assistance of Cortana as he fired several of the rounds into the Super Mutants.

The Super Mutants roared in pain as they were suddenly being assaulted by the Spartan and when they were able to react, they fired at the man. That was where the Brotherhood who were there in the area saw for the first time the shields of MJOLNIR flare up from weapon impacts. They could only watch as the Super Mutants before the Spartan were torn up by the rounds. One of them managed to swing it's wooden board at the super soldiers, only for the wooden board to splatter harmlessly over the shields as John quickly answered with a massive kick to the chest. The Super Mutant's rib cage, while tough due to FEV exposure and mutation, was not able to handle the sheer force of the kick and the being roared in pain as the painful sound of flesh being smashed and the sounds of bones breaking were heard.

John quickly used the body of the collapsing Super Mutant as a springboard and leaped to shoot the others, one got a face full of bullets from the SMGs and so did another. The Super Mutants roared in anger as they fired at the Spartan. The shields flared with the hits as John placed his weapons down to his thighs. He then grabbed his Combat Knife and engaged the Super Mutant with the Hunting Rifle.

He quickly evaded the aimed weapon and slammed his weapon into the stomach of the mutant. He then used his full strength and literally disemboweled the Super Mutant. He then kicked the right knee and shattered the knee bone, making the creature roar out in pain and rage, only for it to watch in shock as it's organs just fell out from the cut. He then tossed the Knight into the throat of the next Super Mutant who had been firing it's Assault Rifle at him. The attack made the Super Mutant cry out in pain as it tried to both rip the knife out of it's throat and fire at the Spartan still. John however quickly charged at the creature and take out the Assault Rifle from his back and smashed the butt of the weapon into the face of the creature and then fired the rounds into the face.

The last Super Mutant roared and tried to rip into the Spartan, only for John to leap back and he rolled back and fired the Assault Rifle into the creature. The rounds tore into the Super Mutant as John charged and slammed his bulk like a battering ram into the bloody mess of the creature's chest and the creature fell down dead.

John scanned the area and then executed the surviving Super Mutants that survived, rather barely, from the Spartan Laser. He then recovered the Combat Knife and flicked the blood away and re-sheathed the weapon as he went back to the Brotherhood position. As he did so, Artemis was still very much wide eyed at the next display of the Spartan's combat prowess, and the same could be said for the Initiates. It was not long before they were on their way back to the Citadel, it was going to be a long trip, but there was going to be a lot to talk about.

…

In the Citadel…

The group was now back and already the other Brotherhood of Steel members were surprised that Artemis made it back with no losses though they could tell that the Initiates were still tired and injured if the bandages were any indication. Bael himself was raising an eyebrow at the sight of the whole team as he spoke to his fellow Paladin.

"Looks like you guys had quite the ride."

"You don't know the half of it Bael, but the supplies made it through and we're still in one piece."

"I can see that, anyway, better go in and talk to Elder Lyons, he'll be very interested to hear just what when down in that mission of yours."

As the group went back in, John was a bit tired but he had plenty of energy left in him so no sense letting himself fall asleep just yet. He looked about to see that the other Initiates were surprised to see their comrades return back alive and fairly whole, and the same could be said for the Brotherhood members in Power Armor. Their faces might be hidden but body language spoke louder than words in his mind. He turned to see none other than Sarah Lyons who was nearby as she had a look of surprise and some measure of relief to see the recruits make it back, alongside Artemis. She still did not trust him but he did not mind that.

It was not long before they were soon greeted by the Star Paladin and Elder Lyons, the old man seemed to be pleased and that was a good thing in the mind of the Spartan. The old soldier before him no doubt had been through a lot and some good news was more than welcome. Lyons moved forward and he was joined by none other than Star Paladin Cross since Sarah was elsewhere at this time as he spoke to Artemis.

"Knight Artemis, it is good to see that you and your group have returned safely."

"Thanks Elder, and I have a lot to report to you."

"I am sure that you have, get down to the canteen and get some food in your belly Artemis, once you are done, you can report to us just how the mission went."

"Yes Elder, I'll dismiss the Initiates and get to the canteen."

Artemis turned and the Initiates followed him, but not before he spoke to the Spartan.

"Chief, you might not be Brotherhood, but you did a fine job working with me and my people. Wish there were more like you, the Wasteland could really use them."

"Thank you , sir."

The Initiates John had worked with also gave their appreciation to him as the headed off to meet with the others. Boy had they got stories worth telling once they got back to barracks.

Lyons saw that and he could now tell that the Spartan had made a rather strong impact on the group he was working with. And judging by how his people acted towards the armored human, it was all positive. He turned and saw that the Spartan was focused on him and saluting him as well before speaking.

"The mission has been accomplished sir!"

Lyons replied to the salute with his own salute to the massive human and he spoke.

"At ease Master Chief, I can certainly see that it was accomplished, and quite well considering that not only had Artemis and the Initiates come back safe, but they also seem to speak well of you. You have done what was asked of you so we too shall repay you in kind, you have access to our archives. Paladin Cross, can you escort the Master Chief to the archives?"

The female officer looked at her father a bit before nodding as she replied.

"Of course Elder, come with me."

The female Paladin turned about and John naturally followed her to see just where the archives were located. This was not the Pentagon he was familiar with back in his reality so he did not say anything that could get him into the less than good graces of the Brotherhood. The guards in Power Armor looked at him carefully, it was obvious to the Spartan that none of them were too pleased to have someone like him wandering about in their base of operations. Though it seemed that they were more relaxed because of the fact that Three Dog told them of his exploits and that Star Paladin Cross was with them, that naturally made John aware of the rank and position of the woman who was his tour guide through the base and to where the archives were. There were a number of Paladins in the base and he made sure to keep his eyes and ears open and soon they arrived at the place which apparently served the Brotherhood's archive room. There were a number of computers there and these looked to be in fairly good condition. A woman with short hair and carrying a check board and pencil spotted him.

He quickly saw the surprise on her face and that relaxed when she saw Sarah. Sarah soon spoke to her while he decided to look about, only to be greeted by the sight of a young boy in a rather odd looking uniform looking at him. The young man gaped at John and could not help but stare at him and Cortana jokingly spoke in private to him.

"Looks like you're turning heads yet again."

"Uh huh."

The Spartan looked at the young man and spoke as calmly as he could with startling the boy. Even though he had NO idea what a kid was doing here in a military base in decidedly hostile territory, he knew not to press an issue when there was no need to in the first place. He'll find out more about the kid at a later date, but for now, it was time to play peace maker.

"Can I help you?"

That question from the Spartan made the young man realize that he was supposed to answer back.

"Oh! Uh nothing, it's just that I was not aware that we were having an outsider come into the Citadel, especially someone like yourself. I am Arthur Maxson, Squire Arthur Maxson actually."

John then decided to reply since the boy did answer his question.

"Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan-117, you can just call me the Chief if you want."

"Oh, I see, well, if you are with Star Paladin cross then I suppose you are a trust worthy sort. Anyway, if you have questions about the Brotherhood, you can ask me."

"How long have you been here?"

"Ever since I was able to walk, I was asked to move here by the Elders since they considered I would be safer here."

Before this conversation was going to get further, the Spartan redirected his attention when the Star Paladin said that he was now given access to the Archives by Head Scribe of the Order of the Quill, Scribe Jameson. He gave a nod to the young man and headed to the nearest terminal that the head scribe had pointed out to him. Once he was there, he activated it and Cortana asked him to place his arm there on the computer to allow her to go in and gather the files. He did not have to look behind him to know that Star Paladin Cross began to look at him. No doubt she had been given covert orders to keep an eye on him and he was not offended as this would be expected since they were going to make sure that he was not taking information that was too sensitive.

The whole process was also being watched by the head Scribe, yet another expected thing since she was the one who was in charge of the Brotherhood's Archives . Once he was done, he decided to get up and stated that he was done. Jameson raised an eyebrow at that and soon moved to check the records. She found them to be all intact and also noted that the computer was performing a lot faster than it normally did and that was a surprise. And thus it was something for her to look into when she had the chance do so and to also see if there was anything that she might have missed.

As for John, he decided to visit Lyons and after being guided to where the Elder was and soon spoke to the man but not before saluting him, to which Lyons returned the salute.

"I have the files I needed Elder, thank you sir!"

"Very well Spartan, may I ask where you intend to go from here?"

"Back to the FOB sir, to sort out the data."

Lyons was curious as he knew what an FOB was. It was military slang for Forward Operations Base, no doubt this was where the superiors of this…Spartan were located, but so far there had been no reports of a base operating anywhere near the DC Area. That only served to make the man a lot more interested on the mysteries surrounding the man and he had hope to find out what were the mysteries. For now however, he knew that detaining the man was asking for trouble.

"Very well then, send word to your superiors that the Brotherhood of Steel is pleased to see that some semblance of society has begun to rebuild."

"Yes sir!"

…

As soon as he left the Citadel, he headed back to the same location of the Super Duper Mart and use that as the place to be picked up by the soon to come Pelican Dropship. He made sure that the LZ was secured and soon the dropship arrived but it was going to be already night time for a night extraction. He stepped in and soon it took off with the back door sealing itself up for space travel. Since he had left at night and a good distance away from most of the settlements, he was safe. That did not mean that there was no chance he had left unseen. Chances of that were not too good since he was between the Citadel and the settlement of Megaton. But all in all, things could have been worse.

For now he was going back to reload and resupply just in case his next run in the Wasteland was going to last a lot longer. Besides, Cortana had a lot of data that could be some use to him so no sense doing in a hostile location such as the Capital Wasteland.

…

In the Pioneer…

The Spartan was quick to get out of the Pelican Dropship, and he moved to get to the Armory and load up on new amounts of ammunition. That also meant that he was going to have to reload his Spartan Laser as he knew that it needed to be locked into the recharging unit to be at full power. He made sure to allow Cortana to be in the Pioneer's computer network as soon as they were close to a nearby terminal to allow her to work on what she gathered from the terminals in the Citadel. He had no doubt of his friend's abilities but no doubt dealing with such….low tech computers might have been a test of her patience and control.

Once in the Armory he decided to place the Spartan Laser on the recharging rack alongside a few others and moved to start loading ammunition packs into the rucksack. The rounds were the standard Armor Piercing Rounds and Shredder Rounds, for the MA5C along with fresh clips for the M7S SMGs that he still had with him for more covert uses.

As he was doing so, it was here that Cortana finally appeared near him on the Armory's Holo-tank.

"How are you doing John?"

"Pretty good, how was the data you recovered from the Brotherhood?"

"Not too much of a problem. It took me a while since the computers in this reality are rather slow. In fact slow is an understatement with them. How the people even managed to make Power Armor with computer systems this slow I will never know. Anyway I can say that it was not a complete lose since the data is pretty good. The data however seems to have suffered some corrosion, data corruption, and apparent data cannibalism."

"Come again?"

"Apparently the computer systems here in order to free up data have some sort feature that allows the systems to consume data. It's similar to a delete function but it seems to be different from the rest. It's not too bad though since I got enough to work with for now. So you might as well take some time to hear what I got."

John did just that and soon the A.I told him the history of the Capital wasteland and what happened long ago before the world they were in was reduced to this mess. He was not pleased with the fact that the UN was disbanded and that instead of developing new technology that his world did, the people here still used technology that in his mind was rather outdated at the time. He did however feel impressed by the fact that they developed working lasers and plasma weapons in this time frame, along with Gauss technology. Had this been done in the UNSC, it would have given them a fighting chance, slim as it was against the Covenant and the Flood when the eventually made their appearance on the UNSC.

He also was given information on the Brotherhood in more serious detail, along with the history of the Brotherhood of Steel here that was led by Lyons. John listened intently and once the AI was done with what she recovered, he gave his opinion on what he had learned of the Brotherhood of Steel.

"Sounds like Lyons went rogue when he got to the Capital Wasteland."

"True, but he did it to protect the people and you have to admit that he did the right thing with the types of being that live here. The Outcasts on the other hand are not exactly evil either, they are following orders and protecting technology to make sure it's not lost is a good goal. But the fact that they think technology is more important that life is not exactly a humanitarian point of view. The fact that they don't recruit to rebuild their numbers if the lose anyone is a weakness to boot."

John nodded as while he understood the value of following orders due to his time under Chief Mendez, he also knew that at times, one had to break protocol when deemed needed. He never made a habit of that but only made the call when he knew that the rewards outweighed the risks, or he had faith in the people he was working with. Him rescuing Cortana in what was left of High Charity was a very obvious example since everyone else wrote her off as a lost cause. As for the Brotherhood, preserving the technology and data of the past in this era was all well and good, but technology alone did not solve problems, the gun couldn't do its job if no one was holding it and aiming it at said target after all. And even computers needed people to keep them operational and ready for use.

For now however, he decided to focus on another matter that he knew was of concern for him and Cortana.

"You found anything on their Power Armor?"

"Yeah though not by much, apparently the Pentagon had at least several storage areas full of the armor we saw. These are called the T-45 Power Armor and were actually used in war between the US and China. They were not as advanced as the ones later used, for different reasons, but they did pave the way for Power Armor usage. The currently recognized pinnacle of the armor was the T-51 Power Armor though suits like that are hard to find and maintain for obvious reasons, but these prototype suits are still effective despite not being up to the standard set by their descendants. They actually have a Micro-fusion reactor built in and that has given me some ideas."

"Care to elaborate on that?"

"I'll spare you the techno-jargon, but I think if we can get our hands on one of the suits and have it relatively intact, we could improve the technology with what resources we can find. In fact, it might even be an excellent armor system to use in the UNSC once we get back there."

John thought it over and then gave a thought.

"Power Armor for regular human beings to use in combat I take it?"

Cortana smiled.

"You got that right John, according to the files I received and from what we both saw, the Armor they use requires the user to undergo special training to use Power Armor, along with some sort of inner suit. If we can find a way to improve it and install UNSC technology, and take it back with us along with any tactical data we can get, this could be a powerful addition to the UNSC's overall arsenal. Sure it's not like the MJOLNIR or the other UNSC Armor systems, but the fact that it requires only special training and an inner suit, could really make a difference for our soldiers back home."

John said nothing but he already saw the reasoning there, the ONLY wrinkle in that idea was getting said suit.

"That's good, but the only users of those would be the Brotherhood and the Outcasts, that might pose a problem if they spot us taking the Armor."

"True, but I think that there is a solution. And that solution is that there is a chance that we might encounter dead Brotherhood and Outcast forces in the Wasteland both in the DC area and out of it when they are on patrol, slain by either encounters with the wild life here or by human hands. That should allow us to get a sample of the suits in question since the only differences between Outcast and Brotherhood Power Armor is the color scheme."

John thought it over and admitted that with the way things were, it would be better to salvage from the dead. Besides, with things as they were, he doubted the Brotherhood had the resources to recover the dead of their group. It was not something he would like, but he was a practical person and thus if they needed to get a sample of the technology to improve on it and adapt it for UNSC use, then all the better.

It was a better bonus as well if they improved it enough to give to the Brotherhood to help them and win their support. As far as he had seen, the Brotherhood was doing what was the morally correct thing to do and he did care more for civilian lives than his own, and respected those who risked their lives to protect people.

"All right, if we get the chance to locate the suits, I'll move them to a safe spot and get them back on the Pioneer for study."

"Good to know, I'd also recommend we play nice and improve some of the weapons we've seen Miranda and the Brotherhood use, plus if we can find ways to improve their armor, it will make their tasks here on the Wasteland a heck of a lot easier. By doing that for them, we can at the very least keep the people happy and also make allies while we are here."

"Hearts and minds campaign eh?"

"If it keeps us in the good graces of the people here, then whatever you want to call it, do it. That way we have time to do what we really need to do and also possibly have allies to help us. And if we play our cards right, we not only might do some good for this reality's humanity, but also get their help in going home if we are going through with the plan I gave you By the way, we had better catch up with Miranda and see if she needs help, I still have her Armor's built in tracker system so we should help her out in finding her father."

John agreed and got all of his gear ready, he had recharged the Spartan Laser and was now ready to head back into the Wasteland via Pelican. He checked the time line and it would already be nearing midnight there on the surface and he hoped that Miranda had managed to find some place to rest for the night. That way they could meet up with her without being caught in a potential fire fight. As soon as he was onboard the Pelican, the dropship took off and was soon moving out of the Destroyer and heading down t the planet below. Along the way, he decided to get some sleep after he ate some MREs of his, no way was he trusting any of the food on this world.

…

It was not long before the Pelican went past the atmosphere of this reality's Earth and headed back to the Capital Wasteland at good speed and while it was on it's way, the people on the ground were going to be in deep discussion about what was going to happen. And in the Citadel, there was a LOT to talk about.

…

At night in the Citadel…

Elder Lyons leaned back into the chair as he listened to the report given by Artemis and he was not alone as Scribe Rothchild and Star Paladin Cross were with him. Sarah had left already and should have already arrived to reinforce GNR with the Pride and he hoped to hear good news soon from her on their reinforcing the location and preventing the Super Mutants from taking the location.

His attention was now focused on what he had learned from Artemis, as Rothchild spoke seriously though there was a hint of amazement in his voice.

"Are you saying that his Armor has ACTUAL energy shields?"

"Yes sir, I was literally caught off guard by that, the bullets and weapons that hit the shield merely bounced off from the shield. It glows deep yellow when hit and when I was able to focus during the lull in the fighting, I actually heard a slight humming, no doubt that was the shields recharging. And that armor actually allowed him to do moves that our Power Armor could not do."

"He literally moved too fast for me to see, anyone here, begging pardon sir, would have only broken their limbs if they did the things I saw that Spartan do. All I can say sir, is that man is NOT someone I want to be on the bad side of. If he was able to wipe out Super Mutants, Raiders, and Talon Company mercs like what I saw, I shudder at the idea of facing him in combat."

Lyons spoke next to Rothchild.

"Any ideas on how this is possible?"

Rothchild thought it over and shook his head.

"I'm sorry Lyons, but for the life of me I can't even begin to guess just how advanced that man's Power Armor is. The fact that it has the ability to have shields along with the ability house an AI of such a sophisticated manner is more than enough to convince to say that it is even more advanced than anything we have to date right now. No Power Armor on record has the abilities this has displayed, not even the Advanced Power Armor and Advanced Power Armor Mark 2 owned by the Enclave had that level of sophistication. Atremis's records also tell me that whatever systems allow it to move are beyond even the sealed in servo-motors of the T-51 and the two other Power Armor Models we have records of."

Lyons thought all of this over and then turned to Cross.

"Any word from our scouts on his whereabouts?"

"Sorry Elder, but he has already left the area and so far none of our patrols have been able to find any trace of him. But if what we had heard from Three Dog's reports is true, then it is possible that he has a base located far beyond our effective patrol range. And as it stands, we do not have the numbers nor the personnel to try and locate him more openly."

"Scribe Jameson, can you give me an exact idea on what information the Spartan has downloaded from the archives?"

Scribe Jameson nodded as she gave her report.

"He was focused only on the events of the Great War or whatever data we have on it in the servers, he also took data pertaining to the history of the Brotherhood, namely from the diary records of Robert Maxson, and also some data on Power Armor, namely our wordl."

"Has there been any damage?"

"None Elder, in truth, my fellow Scribes have reported that some significant file corruption in our computer systems had actually been cleaned out and we have accessed more data from the terminals. It's not much, but our systems are now operating at a much smoother pace than they were before able to operate from."

"How do you think that happened?"

"I am not sure, but if what I have learned of the man and his A.I Companion is any indication, that A.I might have helped clear out the corruption to access the data better. None of the files and records were compromised so we are all right in that regard Elder."

Lyons thought it over and decided to speak to the gathered people in the command room.

"This Spartan has done a good turn for us, and judging by the fact that he is a man of his word, we should endeavor to show him our thanks. It may also allow us to learn more about him and if possible, gain access to what he is willing to give us. I must be frank, the sheer scale of his technology is staggering, and the abilities he possess thus far need to be understood. At any rate, we have matters to deal with of our own, but make sure to send word that if he is spotted again, have our Paladins avoid engaging him in friendly fire incidents and aid him if they can. His help, and what he might be willing to offer, might help us."

…

As soon as the Pelican Dropship arrived some distance from the subway entrance, the Spartans soon began to leave and the Dropship and it seemed that no one had decided to try and find them. That meant that they were striking the area early and that was in hindsight a good thing. Once he was in the subway, Cortana began to guide him to the exact location of Miranda via the waypoints system in his MJOLNIR. He also made sure to keep himself fully alert for possible attack.

Once they moved through the subway, it was clear that Miranda had been around as there had been a number of bullet holes consistent with the rounds used by the Assault Rifles here in this reality as well as several bodies there. All Ghouls and judging by the neural degradation on their brains, the were feral. John had to admit that this was disturbing and he had to give credit to the people of this reality to have lived with these things and situations for as long as they have. As he moved through the place, there were more bodies, namely some cockroaches of the large variety along with some wild dogs.

It was not long before John's HUD flashed the location of Miranda and John moved the pace a bit, to finally reach the outside of the station, only to see that Miranda was moving forward, just as he spotted a Super Mutant about to take a potshot at her. John's reflexes kicked on over time and he quickly rushed in and fired at the same time. Miranda turned and was about to shot him when she recognized him and turned the same direction he was shooting at.

The Super Mutants turned away and soon the two were side by side as she spoke to him.

"Nice to see you again, been a while."

"I know, how's the armor?"

"Good, saved my ass a lot lately, still think it's going to need to be repaired at some point."

The two cut the conversation as more rounds came at them, and since they could not see the shooters, they moved out. And as they moved through the area, they soon encountered none other than Sarah and the Lyon' Pride and they were currently fighting the Super Mutants. Both John and Miranda moved forward and soon spotted one of the Brotherhood soldiers trying to protect a wounded or possibly dead member of their team.

The two however moved and John spotted a charging Super Mutant, he did not hesitate to move and fired several rounds at the being. The creature roared out in anger and pain But John did not care not hesitate as he fired another burst into the face. That killed the creature well enough and John soon turned his attention to the other Super Mutants who were in the area. He fired another burst to the one above on cover and forced it to stop shooting and get to cover for itself. Miranda soon took over and fired her own Assault Rifle, and as the creature came out, she nailed it right in the arm and into the face, killing it as well as she was able to strike it in the eyes and throat.

They moved into the building and soon fought a few more of the Super Mutants, with one trying to charge both John and Miranda, only for John to come in and slam a serious kick in the stomach and Miranda to fire a burst into it's open mouth. The Lyon's Pride soon showed up in the area and began to hammer in on the Super Mutants. The team soon moved in and finally they were before the GNR building and soon spotted several of the Super Mutants attacking it. John already saw that some of the Brotherhood were dead but the others were still fighting and soon they joined the fight.

The Spartan spotted one of the Super Mutants, better armored and armed than the rest, no doubt the leader of this bunch and he focused on it. He was not alone as Miranda came in and fully reloaded her weapon as the both of them opened up their weapons. This damaged the creatuire a great deal and it turned and roared in anger at the attackers and turned it's attention on the pair. John's shields flared up from the weapon impacts and Miranda's own armor took a hit or two, but held, The woman quickly got to cover as the bullets came in en masse as the other Super Mutants turned around to fight their new attackers.

John was not going to let up however and fired the last of his rounds, one of which tore out the right eye of the Super Mutant he was facing an it roared at him and charged, tossing the AK-47 shaped gun aside, no doubt to try and tear apart the Spartan, only for it to receive a kick to the knee that shattered it's bones and a mouth full of 7.62mm NATO rounds.

The Brotherhood's Lyon's Pride arrived and soon bullets and laser fire came in to take out the rest of the Mutants and soon all of them dropped dead. John reloaded his weapon and checked on Miranda. She seemed all right and while the armor was a bit dinged, it was going it's job well enough for now. Sarah soon turned around and looked both Miranda over and the Spartan, she had not expected them here, but was not unwelcoming of what they had done.

"Nice to see that you both are still breathing, but may I ask who you are. I know who the Spartan is, but it's you I don't know."

Miranda took that as her cue and spoke to Sarah about why she was here and John surveyed the area to see how it looked. And it was a mess and some of the Brotherhood were pretty much dead and gone, no sense taking the armor they once wore though since their brothers and sisters as it were happened to be around so doing that in broad daylight was asking for trouble. He turned to see that the conversation between Sarah and Miranda was soon coming to a close and there was one Paladin shooting into the air in celebration.

John normally would have done something to remind the soldier to stop wasting ammunition like that, but he got beaten to the punch when one of her own told her not to waste ammunition. That was not sitting well with the soldier who apparently from the tone of voice was female and soon they moved out a bit to secure the area. It was enough to convince him that the woman in Power Armor was relatively new to the Lyon's Pride so it made some sense why she was so enthusiastic with her actions.

However, Cortana's voice soon came to John as he also saw a MASSIVE red blip on the radar system of the MJOLNIR.

"JOHN! WE HAVE INCOMING!"

…

In GNR Plaza…

The sounds of crashing was heard and before anything could be done, the Brotherhood soldier wearing Power Armor was suddenly sent flying away from the exploding vehicle wrecks. John looked and saw that her right arm had been torn off and several large shards of metal from the explosion had torn into her armor. The Initiate in Power Armor, one named Reddin was dead, even more so when he saw her smash into a nearby concrete with enough force to crack it.

The Motion Tracker showed a MASSIVE danger signature and he wondered briefly what could be large enough to take nearly half of the Motion Sensor's display. And it was when the smoke cleared that he had a good idea on what it was.

The massive figure that now towered over the Lyon's Pride, the Master Chief, Cortana, and Miranda looked at the collection of small beings before it, and roared out in challenge to them. No doubt eager to not only reduce them all into bloody smears on the ground, but also to tear out their flesh and feast on them. They did not look like much, but after a LONG walk from home, it was not going to complain.

Sarah growled and shouted out to the forces with her.

"BEHEMOTH! FOCUS YOUR FIRE!"

The Brotherhood soldiers quickly began to unleash a hailstorm of fire but the bullets, only tore bits off the massive thing's green colored hide. There was blood to be sure, but that thing might as well have been bitten by mosquitoes as it roared out that. Cortana could not help but gasp a bit at the sight of the creature, it was easily twice or more the size of a Hunter pair even if one was to place one of the Hunters on top of the other. Even John was caught off guard at the sight of the massive creature.

(What is that thing?)

Cortana was quick to react however as she spotted the creature roar out and spoke to John.

"JOHN! THAT THING'S ATTACKING!"

John quickly reacted as he fired a barrage of bullets from his MA5C and watched as the other surviving Brotherhood soldiers continued to fire as well. Sarah was also shooting with her Laser Rifle at the creature as Miranda did the same. The bullets hit the creature but John was quick to see that while it was spilling blood, it was not effective against the massive figure as it began to move towards them.

Apparently it was willing to savor the moment as it moved slowly towards it's intended victims despite the fact it was being drilled by heavy weapons fire.

The Spartan's reflexes and senses were now in full Spartan Time as he moved and fired at the same time at the creature. Cortana and him were now working to determine just what was the creature before them and how they were going to kill it. And it was not long before Cortana spoke to John.

"Chief! That creature's nigh impossible to kill with regular attacks we'd run out of ammunition before we can even get close to slowing it down! Close combat is not a good ideal either since that guy can tear you apart!"

"Any ideas?"

"Heavy ordnance might do the job in killing it! We'll have to use the Spartan Laser for that, but we have to stop that thing from moving around first and get a clean shot at it. Hat might pose a problem though."

John turned and spotted Miranda as she yanked out something he was quick to recognize since he had seen the device before. It was a Fatman Nuke Launcher and there were some mini-nukes there as she began to load it. That might be enough to finally slow it down as he moved and managed to attract the attention of the creature when he fired a burst in the face. The Behemoth roared in rage as it focused on the Spartan, already aware that despite the man's green like armor, he was not one of it's smaller brethren.

John quickly jumped to flip over the swinging fire hydrant as it slammed into the nearby building, he then landed and fired another clip of ammunition, making the thing roar out in annoyance and slight pain. He quickly saw that Miranda was about to fire and quickly got away from the area just as Miranda fire the weapon.

BOOM!

The built in Geiger counter in his MJOLNIR quickly picked up the sudden spike in radiation and he could see the creature reeling from the attack in pain, as was evident by the roars the being made. The Spartan however decided to end the creature before it did something that could harm the others. There was also the fact that Miranda was taking too long to reload her weapon, by the time that she was able to reload the Fatman, that thing was gong to be on top of her and the others. John decided to end it as he quickly placed aside his MA5C on his back and used his Spartan Laser. The Spartan cradled the weapon and quickly took off. The effect of Spartan Time was already on him as he quickly closed the gap between him and the Super Mutant who was still reeling from the pain.

The people watched in shock as the Spartan landed on the thigh of the Behemoth and quickly moved to the right arm with another leap. The massive Super Mutant finally realized what was going on and roared at the Spartan. But that was it's undoing as John rushed towards him and slammed a powerful kick to the chin of the roaring creature. The attack made the Behemoth move it's head upwards at an angle in pain and John took advantage of it as his Spartan Laser was now fully warmed up and read to fire. And fire he did as the Spartan got on the lower jaw and then fired the Spartan Laser...right down the throat of the Behemoth.

…

"Holy crap…"

Vargas could not help himself in saying as the now smoking remains of the Behemoth was there before him and that armored human was there still cradling that MASSIVE weapon on his shoulder before he turned and locked it on his back. When that human sized armored being charged at the Behemoth, just about everyone thought he was nuts, but then seeing him jump on the knee of the massive mutant, then moved to the next side, dodge the massive mace of a fire hydrant like it was moving in slow motion, and then run to the face, KICK the mutant bastard right in the chin and then shove that massive cannon in the mouth and fire the meanest looking laser beam into the Behemoth's insides and out the rear end to kill it…THAT took the cake.

The other Brotherhood of Steel members were flabbergasted and the same could be said for Miranda as she was looking at the now dead creature before her. She had managed to fire one of the mini-nukes from the nuke launcher she got from the dead Brotherhood Knight but it was taking too long for her to reload so the Chief came in and literally fed the creature it's death, already she could SMELL the stink of rotting mutant flesh coming from the mouth and ass end of the dead Super Mutant Behemoth.

As for Sarah, she was impressed though she did not show it, that took some serious guts to attempt, especially in armor like that. How he managed to do all of that without getting swatted to death by the Behemoth was something she doubted even her best in the Pride could pull off. And that weapon was unlike anything she had ever seen before in her life. Sure there were records in old computers about energy weapons being powerful enough to what that weapon did, but she had never seen THAT before in her whole life.

(Just who the heck armed this guy?)

John got off the ruined form of the creature and moved to the side of the head, took out his MA5C decided to fire a full clip right into the side of the head, reducing the brain into a colored mushy mess of brain matter, bone, and flesh on the off chance the thing was still able to stay alive. He then spotted the massive cart behind it and noted that the thing carried a veritable arsenal of supplies with it and no doubt the Brotherhood was going to need those supplies right about now.

He wasted no time and surprised the heck out of everyone as he grabbed the Behemoth and with a slight heave made the creature roll to the side. He pushed it on until the dead Super Mutant was now on it's chest and without further ado opened the carts. The ammunition spilled out along with a spare pistol, a revolver, two SMGs, and three Assault Rifles in bad condition. This told John and Cortana that the Super Mutant Behemoths were not only heavy assault forces with their gear and overall toughness, but served as supply mules…grossly oversized as they were.

He turned to see Sarah and Miranda along with some of the Knights move forward to speak to him, with Miranda being the first to speak to him as she carried the Fatman in her hands.

"That was way cool Chief, never thought anyone could try that."

John shrugged at that and then faced Sarah who was shaking her head a bit at the sight of the deal Behemoth and then spoke to him.

"I thought you were plain crazy or suicidal for charging towards the Behemoth, but that was indeed impressive. But don't let it get to your head or that of your companion, I don't quite trust you yet, but you do have my respect, or at least a portion of it."

"I'm not offended, but I am sorry about Reddin, if I had reacted faster."

Sarah sighed and shook her head.

"She died doing what she wanted to do and she was willing to take the risk, she was green to be sure, but she did her duty and that is all that matters."

"If you want, I can take her body back to the Citadel."

Sarah shook her head and replied.

"No need, she is part of my team so her burial is my responsibility, still, I thank you for the effort and offer you made. Anyway, I have to extend my thanks to you're ally so if you will excuse me."

Miranda turned and spoke to Sarah as the blonde haired Paladin moved to speak with her and John decided to check on Reddin as the other Paladin who was watching him carefully before was now closing her eyes after removing her helmet as a sign of respect. There was no doubt that the eager Initiate was dead but still, he had to admire her willingness to take this risk and do her job. He decided not to take anything since doing so in front of her fellow Brotherhood was close to stealing and the last thing he wanted was to be seen as a grave-robber. Back in the UNSC that was allowed since the men and women who died would be honored and remembered if however brief when their weapons and ammunition were used to fight the enemy instead of being left there on the ground. No doubt the Brotherhood would do the same here so he was not going to interfere.

No doubt they were going to do the same to the slain Brotherhood Paladins who were killed in the battle before the Behemoth came on the scene. And he was going to leave that alone as he scanned the battle field. The GNR building was very much a mess but it was still very much intact and considering the state of the rest of the area, it made sense that the Brotherhood would have an outpost here in the area. Controlling a source of communications and located in the heart of the contested area with hostile forces was a good move to some extent.

He then directed his attention to Sarah and decided to evaluate the woman and her team as she moved to talking to her fellow Paladin who had moved back to sit down.

She was quite skilled in leading her team and judging by the way she used her Laser Rifle and the accuracy she had, she was no slouch in fighting and leading while under fire. She also seemed to carry herself in the same way a veteran officer would and judging by the state of her Armor, she had seen plenty of action and considering the state of the world outside of the Citadel, she was no stranger to loss and battle. He respected that quality in her and noted that despite her sadness at losing her new recruit, she focused on getting her job done.

Cortana herself spoke to him.

"This Sarah is one tough woman, she would have been a high ranking NCO had she been in the UNSC in the battle field. Not to mention the fact that despite her no nonsense looks and actions, she might have made more than one man look her over. Shame they know that she could easily kick their butts in either training or in a spar."

"I see, anyway, let's wait and see what happens from here."

"Right, anyway, I think we are about to be speaking to Miranda once more, here she comes."

…

Miranda placed away the Fatman, and it moved out of sight and stored away by her Pip-boy and spoke to the Master Chief.

"I've seen you in action already but damn…charging right at a Behemoth and doing all of THAT so fast, you really have got to tell me how you did all that."

"Sorry, that's classified."

Miranda's hopeful and eager expression turned doleful and petulant in a moment as she replied.

"Damn it, you really know how to cave in a person's dreams you know that?"

John shrugged but Miranda perked up a moment later and replied.

"Anyway, I still have to thank you, if you had not stepped in when you did, that thing could have just outright killed me with that massive weapon it had and just about everyone else here would have been killed as well once that thing was done. And to be honest, having you back here with me certainly makes this whole trip worth it."

John nodded as he spoke to Miranda.

"So you're here to see Three Dog?"

"Yep, I did plan to see him if he did meet my father and now that I am here, I might as well get it over with. I already asked permission from Sarah to allow me, and you to go in. I even asked her if she did not mind having us join them."

"Us?"

"You, me, Cortana…but she shot it down, not that she doubted our skill set, but it's merely tradition, we're both outsiders to them at this time so no way are they going to let us join them right off the bat. I'm not in a hurry though, finding my father is important to me I have to put that aside. At any rate, you are coming in with me right?"

John nodded and soon they were making their way into the building, they were soon greeted by a number of Brotherhood Paladins who were carrying heavy weapons such as a Missile Launcher and a Flame Thrower of all things. The armored soldiers looked at both Miranda and John for a moment and then nodded as one of them spoke.

"That was one ballsy move you two did, taking on that behemoth."

Miranda nodded and John shrugged as they moved up to finally locate Three Dog, and it did not take long for them to meet the man once they were in the studio.

…

"Good golly holly…if it ain't the dynamic duo of Miss 101 and Mr-117 who have decided to come here and graced my little place in the DC Wasteland. Pleased to have you both in my humble abode after all the time you spent doing the things to make life safe for our poor folk out there!"

Miranda could not help but raise her eyebrows at the sight of the radio jockey Three Dog himself, he was just as energetic as she had been able to hear from her Pip-boy radio. As for John, he looked at the man a lot more carefully and could tell that this man was certainly not a fighter by his standards, but carried himself with a confidence and a sense of purpose.

He was an African American who seemed to fit the bill of a radio jockey easily and would have easily found work in the Colonies though for who he did not know, though he can bet with the attitude, he and Johnson would have hit it off nicely. It was here that Cortana spoke to the Spartan as well, no doubt offering her very own study of the man who they had been able to hear about ever since they had gotten to this reality.

"The guy seems all right to me, I think we can trust this guy to an extent since he tells it how it is, and we both can agree that he's all right since we've already seen for ourselves what a mess the Wasteland is right now."

"I suppose."

Three Dog offered his hand to Miranda to show that he was in the mood to make friends as he spoke.

"I have to apologize for the comment I made in the radio earlier Miss 101, or should I call you Miri Cole instead?"

Miranda was surprised as the only persons she knew of to call her nickname were Amata and her father. She had wondered at times if the one that Three Dog said to have visited his studio was really her father. She had done a number of things for other people since she wanted to help them before finding her father, and now here she was before a man who had indeed met her father. It seemed that Colin's information about her father coming to Galaxy News Radio was indeed true and the only thing that the man said to be true.

"So you have met my father?"

Three Dog smiled and replied.

"You got that right, your father and I had a great deal of time together talking, I did tell him about the things that happened ever since he went underground to raise you. He was a stand up kind of guy, and it shows that you are just as good hearted as he was. Makes fighting the good fight easier around here. And then there's your running buddy in the fancy armor and packing the meanest guns I've ever seen, plus the vehicles to boot."

Three Dog turned his attention to John-117 and while he tried to remain calm, he had to admit that he was a sight to behold. The armor was not like anything he had ever seen before, nothing the Brotherhood had in their arsenal was coming close to the gear that they had in their armory. And the weapons he saw when he briefly looked at the battle outside in the plaza were certainly interesting to boot, and at least the guy was all right since he was willing to help the little man.

"I heard a good deal on who you are Mr. 117, but seeing you in person certainly is a treat, you're a hell of a giant and your gear certainly is top notch, though I am no expert on Power Armor, pleasure to meet you."

John gave his hand and shook Three Dog's hand and making sure that he kept his augmented and MJOLNIR enhanced strength from crushing the man's hand. As soon as he was done, he spoke to the man to find out more about the man who had been talking on the radio.

"You've been keeping tabs on me and Miss Cole?"

"Yep, actually I was more focused on Miss Cole, or 101 as I like to call her every now and then, then you showed up and helped her rescue those folks from Big Town, and then not only did you help them fight off those Green Frankenstein monsters, but give them a fighting chance. So naturally I kept an eye on you, hope that you both find a place for that kid Bryan by the way…losing your father is hard on any kid. It's nice that you two are fighting the Good fight."

Miranda raised an eyebrow and replied.

"What do you mean by the Good Fight?"

The man sighed a bit and removed his shades, cleaned them a bit and replied as he wore them again.

"You've already seen what the Capital Wasteland is like for yourselves, people fighting for scraps of food and water, starving children, sick people, ruins everywhere, and dangers all around. But people are trying to survive and fight, and no matter how things look bad…people are rebuilding and making it through day after day. There are people out there trying to rebuild and thrive, to show that humanity ain't gone to hell."

"But then we have all sorts of crazy dangers out there, the Super Mutants killing and kidnapping who they want and no one knows that they plan to do with their victims or where they are taking them, Raider bands going around killing, pillaging, raping, torturing. Slavers taking anyone they can get and selling them off like merchandise, insane people doing all sorts of crazy shit. Wild beasts roaming all over the place, mutated creatures killing who they can find and turning them into chew toys. Mercenaries going around willing to kill, rape, kidnap, steal and more for a quick cap reward, and more…ALL of them want a piece of the pie. And then there's people trying to fight back and make it through the hell of it all, and the Brotherhood is one of them, they need to know that their efforts are not in vain, they are fighting the Good Fight, you know what I mean?"

Miranda and John were silent and then she replied.

"So you fight the Good Fight with your voice and radio just as the Brotherhood do with weapons and armor?"

Three Dog grinned warmly at that as he replied.

"You got that right, you are like your old man, razor sharp smart. I'm no straight up fighter like the Brotherhood guys and gals as well as you two, but I do my part. By telling the people what they need to hear and telling them what they have to do to protect themselves and their fellow humans, that's how I fight the good fight. Unlike that crap the Enclave keep spouting out, I tell them what is really going on and not spoon feeding them Brahmin-shit, they always say that they are representing the old US of A and that they were coming to change everything, but they had plenty of time to do that, yet they did nothing. So I do know that they are telling nothing but lies to the people who actually listen to their station."

John then spoke to Three Dog.

"What do you know of the Enclave?"

"Nothing good I'll tell ya 117, they've been rather secretive with the exception of all them floating robots shaped like eyeballs moving around. They move around no matter how dangerous some places in the Wasteland are and always play the station and I can bet that they record a lot of things around them too. They've yet to send their boys and girls down here, but I can't help feel in my gut that if they do arrive, they ain't here to help, and let me say that my gut never stirred me wrong before. Besides, I heard that the Brotherhood have met the Enclave before they ever came here to DC, no idea how that turned out, but the older members, namely Miss Lyons said that they know that the Enclave is not to be trusted, and I take their word seriously."

Miranda then spoke to Three Dog.

"What do you know of the Brotherhood?"

Three Dog grinned and replied.

"I know enough to say that they are the best things that happened to the Wasteland, and their leader, Miss Lyons' old man is a straight up guy. I remember what DC was like before they came all those years ago, it was hell for sure, far worse than what you have seen so far, believe me. Anyway, when the Brotherhood came, they began to protect all of DC as best they could, and for once, the people of the Wasteland got the break they need once they got their Citadel up and working. They kept the Super Mutants at bay and did what they could to protect the settlements but it was not easy, and now things are worse, I'm no expert on what is going on behind the Citadel, but I do know that the Brotherhood's in a bad way, losing a lot of good people to the Super Mutants roaming all over the place…some of their own turning over and leaving , and now having to recruit the locals. Still, despite all of this, they kept fighting the Good Fight, so no matter how some people might dislike them, they are all right in my book. At any rate, I take it the reason you two are here are for your father?"

Miranda nodded while John merely replied.

"I don't know Miranda's father too much, only what she told me, but I came here to help her out."

Three Dog nodded and replied.

"That's a reason to be working together at least, but I'm afraid that I have to ask a favor from you both before I tell you about where James went. Don't take it wrong and all, but I figured he wanted to do something on his own and if he's been tuning in to yours truly, then he must be wondering who it is that came out of the Vault and didn't expect it. Besides this favor of mine is important for not just my baby GNR here, but for everyone out there in the Wasteland but with so few people to help let alone be heavily armed, I can't find anyone else."

That was when Cortana spoke.

"This would not happen to be you asking us to find a way to get your radio all over the DC area would it?"

Three Dog raised and eyebrow and John sighed a bit as he spoke to Cortana openly.

"Cortana, remember what I said?"

"I know, but I think it's time I spoke after all."

John opened his palm and soon out came Cortana, much to the surprise of Three Dog, Cortana turned and smiled a bit at Miranda and spoke.

"Hi there Miranda, long time no see huh?"

"Nice to see you to Cortana, but stop doing that you freak me out too much at times."

Cortana then turned to face Three Dog and the man spoke with a whistle of appreciation.

"Wow…who is that?"

"The name's Cortana Three Dog, I am a Smart A.I and long time friend and ally to the Master Chief here."

"An AI huh? Heard of them in passing and scrounging the undestroyed books I could find, but never thought I'd actually meet one in the flesh…so to speak. And damn, you are one fine looking lady, at least them moving codes cover up the 'privates' if you will."

Cortana raised an electronic eyebrow at that and replied.

"You're quite the charmer huh, no wonder we heard some of the ladies in the wasteland liking you a lot. Anyway, keep in mind that I am an AI Three Dog and not flesh and blood so please for the sake of your heart, don't get funny ideas all right?"

The man grinned and replied.

"A man can dream can't he? But anyway, you're right about me asking your help concerning the transmissions for GNR. You see a couple of weeks ago, some brainless Super Mutant out in the Mall area of DC near the old White House decided that it would be fun to shoot the nice big shiny dish right up top on the Washington Monument. And you can wager a guess what that guy shot up."

"The broadcast relay dish of GNR?"

Three Dog nodded to Miranda.

"Yep, ever since then the signal's been on the fritz, if you're near DC, then you can get some signals and the closer you are the better the reception. But go too far and all ya get is static. That's why the Enclave has been poisoning the air around here with their bullshit. The best way for the signal to come back is to get the dish replaced…only problem is that the factory that made that particular dish got wasted in the war so no way there's a stack of them. But I do have some good news."

John then replied.

"You got word of a relay dish of the same make and you know the location so we can get it?"

"Right on Master Chief, the dish was spotted by some Brotherhood Scouts back at the Mall, namely in the Museum of Technology area in their space exploration area, on some module they sent out to the moon if you can believe that. The dish is fully intact and in great condition but it's not going to be an easy run, I'll tell you that up front. The path to the Mall's got a large number of Super Mutants and those freaks on a leash guard dogs they have with them, Feral Ghouls, some possible Raiders, and other associated wild life…so going there is not going to be easy. And there's no doubt that if you go to that Museum, there's going to be Super Mutants taking up residence there."

"Last I heard, the Super Mutants have dug in deep there in the Mall, got trenches, a bunker of sorts, and fox holes if ya can believe that, not to mention they got some serious guns though the Brotherhood outpost in the Washington area still have control. But the real threat's back there in the White House."

Cortana then spoke to Three Dog with a raised eyebrow.

"Why's that?"

"Them Super Mutants are in a shooting war with Talon Company, no doubt you've heard of them and no doubt met them since I got word they got a heck of a bounty on Miss Cole's head here…and now yours too Chief."

John raised an eyebrow at that and replied.

"Really?"

"Yep, they got at least four times the caps on your head, which came out when they got word of you working with Miranda here. I guess the higher reward ain't just for killing ya, but for your tech too. So I'll wager a bet if given the chance, you'll have those heartless bastards after you as well so watch yourself, they might not have your tech, but they can fight well enough and they aren't stupid either."

John shrugged and Cortana replied.

"We can take care of them."

Miranda then spoke.

"Going up against those odds doesn't bother me as much as it used to anymore, and if it helps me find my father, then I am all for it, what do we do with the dish once we get it?"

Three Dog then handed Miranda a holo-tape.

"This here has the password to the Washington Monument outpost and if I can, I'll send word to the Paladins there not to shoot either of you cool cats on sight. Once ya get the dish, take it there to the Monument and set it up there. The Monument's the only place high enough on the Wasteland skyline to give excellent coverage all over the place so ya can't miss it. The reason I asked you three this and not the Brotherhood is that they got too much on their plate already and having them lose more of their brothers and sisters is something I don't want them to deal with. They deserve respect for putting their lives on the line though not everyone here in DC is willing to accept it."

"You guys can rest up here before you go, some rest might do you both some good, take the back entrance down the stairs and you're on your way when you all feel ready. One more thing, I managed to hear about some report of slavers taking shop at the old Lincoln memorial…not all too sure what those guys are doing there, but since they are who the are, they are either hunting for escaped slaves or planning to set up shop. I have no love for them and their trade as they call that messed up shit but if they are in that warzone, they've got some guns and bullet to spare so fighting them ain't all that recommended. Good luck in advance and thanks…it's good people like you that might have this Wasteland fully healed again."

As Three Dog left the two alone, John decided to move to one side to do some needed field work on his weapons. The Assault Rifle looked all right and that was a good thing to him as well. Once he was done checking on the weapon, he moved to remove the M7S SMGs to run some repairs on them as well. He turned to see that Miranda was also looking at her own Assault Rifle and checked the clips until she reached into her supply pack and took out what appeared to be a can filled with what looked like potted meat.

This was going to be one heck of a trip and once this was over, he was going back to the Pioneer and do some work of his own. The samples of the technology they had been able to find on the surface of the Wasteland and the weapons would be studied and if possible it could be improved. This might help him and Cortana with their plans and they were very interested in getting their hands on a working suit of Power Armor.

But for now he placed that aside as Miranda finally got up and spoke to him.

"I'm ready to go on, how about you Chief?"

The Spartan nodded and soon they were off to do what Three Dog asked of them, John knew that after what he had seen already, this trip was going to be anything but simple and safe.

…

To be continued…

…

Author's Notes:

There we are, I hope that this chapter will be good enough to show that this story will be going on and despite some negative comments sent my way, I will not be leaving this story alone. I do not have any malicious intent on the ones who sent me said negative comments since I believe that everyone is entitled to their opinions. At any rate, the story is still going to go on and will be updated as much as possible and I will be doing the next chapter soon enough.

On the next one, it will be a trip through the route that takes you to the Mall if you have played the game, and I will deal with the various creatures the way I know how, and that will naturally be bloody and messy, and make no mistake that while all this is going on, Miranda has done the other quests for Moira, with testing the repellent being one of them while John escorted the Brotherhood supply convoy.

I do plan to have John and Cortana get their hands on a suit of Power Armor and they will study it to see if they can make it better, and also make it possible for a version to be made for the use of the UNSC once they go back. The upgrades may include installing features from the Marine Body Armor and the ODST Battle Armor to not only improve the Armor, but also use the upgraded suits to improve relations with the Brotherhood.

There is also the fact that I plan to have John and Cortana find a way to finally repair the Slipspace Drive and possible develop the means to return home. But they are going to need help apart from facilities and resources. That I plan to work on as the story progresses so I hope that you will be able to keep it up.

Some of the mods I am cooking up have now been formed well in my brain and I guess that since in the coming chapters I will be using them I might as well let you all take a look at them. The weapons that I plan to upgrade with modification packages first happen to be two of my staple weapons in my own player experience. The Assault Rifle and the Chinese Assault Rifle, they would also happen to be the ones with a considerable amount of leeway in said modifications.

.The first modifications would be extended magazines which will increase the ammunition capacity of the two Assault Rifles in different ways since both are different weapons despite sharing the same ammunition type.

The second is the inclusion of the same ammunition type used in Fallout New Vegas and also in real life, the Hollow Points, and the Armor Piercing rounds. These ammunition types do exist in our world though in a different name format. These will certainly add some more potency to the forces that use them and add more flavor. And let's not forget that the UNSC do use ammunition like these in their weapons.

The third idea I had for a mod is to have for both a Grenade Launcher upgrade, similar to the real life grenade launchers used on out own world's assault rifles. This way the users can lob grenades over windows and take out targets which have armor better, plus since the weapon used the clip of the main gun as the grip, then all the better since it no longer means that they have to switch to thrown grenades. I do plan to have John and Cortana study the three grenade types seen in the Fallout 3 world and make the ones for said Grenade Launcher.

The fourth is the one I got from one of my other favorite shows in Discovery Channel, Sons of Guns. This attachment in question being none other than the 'Master Key' that was made to breech doors for the SWAT teams in entering the place held by threats. If you have seen the show and the episode in question, you already know what that means. I plan to have a Shotgun attachment to the both Rifles based from the Drum Fed Combat Shotgun. This can be useful in both busting down regular wooden doors and also for close quarters fighting as well as convincing the bad guys to duck and cover. And like the Grenade Launcher, I also plan to have the clip of the Rifle be the handle for the trigger of said attachment.

Fifth would be an attachment rail mounting system on the top of the weapon for Scopes, namely a Tactical Battle Scope with both thermal and night vision modes for more dangerous operations where visibility and light are at a premium, along with increased accuracy and extended range. All of which are certainly worth aiming for in the long run in the middle of an intense and risky fire fight.

Sixth would be attachable suppressors for sound and muzzle flash, obviously for combat situations were less sound and flash is a lot better.

And seventh would be improved rifling for the barrels for extra range, along with customized stocks for increased recoil compensation, as well as accuracy, and improved springs for an increased firing rate.

Overall, both weapons will be given a serious makeover to improve their effectiveness in the battle field. And before you ask, I am still thinking on whether I should attach these on the Xualong since that weapon already happens to be a powerful weapon, and the other Assault Rifle variants from the DLCs are ones I am considering if they need these mods as well.

For now, these are the only weapons with said mods since I am still digging up the ideas for the other weapons and Armor I had to put on hold for a while due to both my PC going on the fritz, and my promise to freeze all my Halo stories.

See you all soon as we now travel to the Mall!


End file.
